Communicator discrepancy, perceived credibility, and opinion change

Abstract

How credible and at what level of discrepancy a source should be in order to be sufficiently influential is examined in this study. PROCEDURE: Perceived credibility and communicator discrepancy were manipulated. 100 Ss, who were found having different perception of the source, made judgements about their degree of agreement with the communicator at different levels of discrepancy. RESULTS: (1) Trend analysis showed curvilinear relationship between discrepancy and influence for MBA sample only. (2) Significant differences in the overall influence effect between the two samples were found, which was explained in terms of their perception of the source. (3) Prediction that the means between the two samples will show significant differences at some levels of discrepancy was not supported. � 1969, The Japanese Psychological Association. All rights reserved.