The operation of congruity in an oral communication situation

Abstract

The principle of congruity was proposed several years ago as an explanation for certain behavioral changes in communication situations. In this article the principle of congruity is offered as an explanation for attitude change in an oral communication situation. A predictive model is developed, taking a listener's attitude toward the speaker, the speech topic, the speaker's delivery, and the stylistic treatment of the speech topic as the significant variables in determining what the listener's attitude toward the speaker and the speech topic will be after listening to the speech. An experiment to test the predictive model is reported. The results generally support a principle of congruity in this type of oral communication situation.