Source Attributions and Persuasion: Perceived Honesty as a Determinant of Message Scrutiny

Abstract

A hypothesis derived from current two-route models of persuasion was examined-that a communicator's perceived honesty is a determinant of the extent to which attitude change is based on scrutiny of the substance of the persuasive message. Specifically, cognitive misers are expected to forgo effortful message scrutiny when a communicator can be assumed to be truthful. In a preliminary study, honesty was found to be the source characteristic most highly associated with providing an accurate message. Then, in three experiments, source honesty was manipulated either directly (by presenting information about past honesty of the source) or indirectly (using an expectancy confirmation! disconfirmation procedure). In all three studies, post message attitudes of individuals low in the need for cognition (NC) cognitive misers-were less dependent on message scrutiny when the source was assumed to be relatively honest. For high-NC individuals, message scrutiny did not differ depending on the source.