The Rediscovery of Opinion Leaders. An Application of the Personality Strength Scale

Abstract

Opinion leadership has been the subject of numerous studies, in areas ranging from politics to marketing. The present study examines a new measure to identify opinion leaders (the personality strength scale developed by the Allensbach Survey Center in Germany) and combines it with modern social network analysis. An application of this scale to agenda setting and public opinion research is the main point of concern in this study. The findings of the study (a survey of a representative sample of 900 adults in Germany) suggest, that the Strength of Personality Scale fits a more sophisticated characterization of opinion leadership which is based on modifications of the original opinion leader concept. Moreover, the results indicate that people with high personality strength have social networks of great range and are especially active in interpersonal communication. They use print media very frequently and know very well the actual topics and issues on which the mass media report. Although people with high personality strength are able to exactly assess the true climate of opinion, they hold distinct positions which differ from public opinion. In contrary, persons with low personality strength tend to adapt their opinions to the perceived climate of opinion.