Better Liked than Right

Abstract

A persuasive message on the subject of international maritime boundaries was presented in pamphlet form to 1055 students in four countries. Trustworthiness and expertise of the source were manipulated in a 2 x 2 x 4factorial design of the after-only type to assess the relative impact of each component on the communicator's persuasiveness. Main effects were found for both country and trustworthiness. Overall, the expert and trustworthy source generated the most opinion change. However, the trustworthy communicator was more persuasive, whether expert or not.