Page 120 - The Social Animal

102 The Social Animal

students in this experimental condition. For some participants, the
essayist was only mildly favorable in the way he described the
stanza; this set up a moderate discrepancy between the essayist and
the students in this condition. In a third condition, the essayist was
mildly scornful in his treatment of the stanza—which placed the re-
cipients of this communication in a mild-discrepancy situation. Fi-
nally, to one half of the women in the experiment, the writer of the
essay was identified as the poet T. S. Eliot, a highly credible poetry
critic; to the rest of the participants, the essay writer was identified
as a college student. The participants were subsequently allowed to
rank the stanzas once again. When T. S. Eliot was ostensibly the
communicator, the essay had the most influence on the students
when its evaluation of the stanza was most discrepant from theirs;
when a fellow student of medium credibility was identified as the
essayist, the essay produced a little opinion change when it was
slightly discrepant from the opinion of the students, a great deal of
change when it was moderately discrepant, and only a little opinion
change when it was extremely discrepant.
To sum up this section, the conflicting results are accounted for:
When a communicator has high credibility, the greater the discrep-
ancy between the view he or she advocates and the view of the audi-
ence, the more the audience will be persuaded; on the other hand,
when a communicator’s credibility is doubtful or slim, he or she will
produce maximum opinion change with moderate discrepancy.

Characteristics of the Audience

All listeners, readers, or viewers are not alike. Some people are more
difficult to persuade. In addition, as we have seen, the kind of com-
munication that appeals to one person may not appeal to another. For
example, recall that the level of knowledge audience members pos-
sess and their prior opinions will play major roles in determining
whether a two-sided communication will be more effective than a
one-sided communication.

Self-Esteem What effect does an individual’s personality have on
his or her persuasibility? The one personality variable most consis-
tently related to persuasibility is self-esteem. Individuals who feel in-