Speaker Credibility Research Articles

Sock Puppetry in Online Communication

AbstractThis paper concerns sock puppetry, a practice which involves an individual communicating under multiple pseudonymous identities in a manner that makes it seem as though these personas are distinct conversational participants. I provide a definition of sock puppetry that is more narrow than other definitions, allowing it to be distinguished from related phenomena. I then analyse some of the ways in which sock puppetry can interfere with social tools we use for establishing trust within an online community, evaluating a speaker's credibility, and generally deciding who and what to believe.

COVID-19 and perceived risk: examining mortality salience and political decision-making during a pandemic

Four experiments were administered throughout the COVID-19 pandemic: April/May 2020 (n = 587), September/October 2020 (n = 279), March/April 2021 (n = 590), and September 2021 (n = 353) with a national sample of Americans. Using Terror Management Theory (TMT), these set of studies evaluated whether mortality salience impacted speaker credibility and behavioral intentions to follow government recommendations to stay safe from COVID-19, testing TMT. Results show that repeated reminders of mortality over time may have negated the desire for information from a trusted source. Implications for TMT and long-term awareness of death are discussed.

Political Speech: The Influence of Speaker Sex and Verbal Aggression on Message Perception

This study examined the influence of speaker sex and verbal aggression on the persuasiveness of political speech. College students (n = 106) read eight examples of political speech where the sex of the speaker and the level of aggression were manipulated. Participants then completed measures assessing message agreement, speaker credibility, and communicative appropriateness. Results indicated that male and female politicians were evaluated similarly on measures of persuasiveness. In addition, aggressive messages were evaluated as being less persuasive than nonaggressive messages. Finally, results identified a significant interaction between speaker sex and level of aggression when predicting message persuasiveness.

Rule-Governed Behavior and Climate Change: Why Climate Warnings Fail to Motivate Sufficient Action.

Climate scientists warn of dire consequences for ecological systems and human well-being if significant steps to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions are not taken immediately. Despite these warnings, greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise, indicating that current responses are inadequate. Climate warnings and reactions to them may be analyzed in terms of rules and rule-governed behavior. The literature on rule-governed behavior in behavior analysis has identified a variety of factors that can reduce rule following, including insufficient rule exposure, insufficient learning history and rule complexity, incomplete rules, instructed behavior not sufficiently learned, rules having weak function-altering effects, conflicting rules, lack of speaker credibility, rule plausibility and inconsistency with prior learning, and insufficient reinforcement for rule following. The present paper aims to analyze how these factors might impact responses to climate change, and possible solutions and strategies are discussed. Much of the theory and research on climate-change communication has come from outside of behavior analysis. Thus, the paper also aims to integrate findings from this literature with a behavior-analytic approach to rule control. Interpreting climate warnings and climate solutions in terms of rule-governed behavior may improve our understanding of why such rules are not more effective, and aid in the development of verbal and nonverbal strategies for changing behavior and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Testimoniale Ungerechtigkeit gegenüber Menschen mit psychischer Erkrankung in der Gesundheitsversorgung. Eine konzeptionelle und ethische Analyse

ZusammenfassungMenschen mit psychischer Erkrankung sterben statistisch gesehen früher als die Allgemeinbevölkerung. Ein Grund hierfür ist, dass sie eine schlechtere somatische Gesundheitsversorgung erhalten. Wir argumentieren, dass ableistische Netzwerke sozialer Bedeutung zu einer Abwertung der epistemischen Kompetenz von Menschen mit psychischer Erkrankung führen. Diese Abwertung kann mit dem Konzept der testimonialen Ungerechtigkeit erfasst werden. Testimoniale Ungerechtigkeit bezeichnet das ungerechtfertigte Herabstufen der Glaubwürdigkeit einer*s Sprecher*in aufgrund eines Vorurteils gegen ihre*seine soziale Identität. Wir analysieren ethische und epistemische Folgen testimonialer Ungerechtigkeit als wichtige Ursachen der schlechteren Gesundheitsversorgung von Menschen mit psychischer Erkrankung. Testimoniale Ungerechtigkeit kann zu medizinischen Behandlungsfehlern führen und für Betroffene schwerwiegende gesundheitliche Folgen nach sich ziehen. Zudem kann sie zu einem Vertrauensverlust von Menschen mit psychischer Erkrankung in das Gesundheitssystem führen. Daher trägt testimoniale Ungerechtigkeit zur strukturellen Diskriminierung von Menschen mit psychischer Erkrankung bei. Vor diesem Hintergrund diskutieren wir, wie die somatische Gesundheitsversorgung unter ethischen Gesichtspunkten verbessert werden kann.

Making a Boast Believable: Disclaimers Increase the Effectiveness of Seemingly Untrue Brags

Communicating about one’s accomplishments and abilities to others is an important part of navigating the social world, yet people are not always believed when making self-promotional claims. In this research, we investigate how people can brag about themselves more effectively when their audience is not likely to find their claim very credible. In particular, we examine, and find support for, the efficacy of disclaimers—phrases that attempt to prevent negative judgments from the speaker’s forthcoming statement (e.g. “This may sound strange to you, but…” or “I’m not that smart, but…”)—as an effective tool that can address a brag’s lack of believability and thereby improve perceptions of the braggart. However, we also find evidence that such disclaimers are ineffective, and sometimes even harmful, when the speaker is already perceived as credible in their claim. Finally, we find that other types of disclaimers (that address other negative aspects of the statement besides the lack of believability) are ineffective regardless of speaker credibility. Results are discussed in terms of the disclaimer’s effect on perceived speaker self-awareness and sincerity.

Conversion messages and attitude change: Strong arguments, not costly signals

A conversion narrative recounts the process that led the speaker to reject one belief for a different, usually incompatible, alternative. However, researchers know little about whether, when, and, if so, how such messages affect audience attitudes about controversial science. Using a general US population-sample experiment, we assessed the attitudinal impact of three versions of a statement by Mark Lynas, an environmental activist who converted from opposing to championing genetically modified crops. Participants were exposed to (1) a one-sided pro-genetically modified message by Lynas, (2) a two-sided pro-genetically modified message in which Lynas indicates but does not detail his conversion, or (3) a two-sided pro-genetically modified message in which Lynas explains the process that prompted his conversion. We find that his conversion messages influenced attitudes by way of perceived argument strength, but not speaker credibility. This finding implies such messages induce greater elaboration, which may lead to durable attitudes that predict behavior.

Use of speech generating devices can improve perception of qualifications for skilled, verbal, and interactive jobs.

We have previously demonstrated that when speech generating devices (SGD) are used as assistive technologies, they are preferred over the users' natural voices. We sought to examine whether using SGDs would affect listener's perceptions of hirability of people with complex communication needs. In a series of three experiments, participants rated videotaped actors, one using SGD and the other using their natural, mildly dysarthric voice, on (a) a measurement of perceptions of speaker credibility, strength, and informedness and (b) measurements of hirability for jobs coded in terms of skill, verbal ability, and interactivity. Experiment 1 examined hirability for jobs varying in terms of skill and verbal ability. Experiment 2 was a replication that examined hirability for jobs varying in terms of interactivity. Experiment 3 examined jobs in terms of skill and specific mode of interaction (face-to-face, telephone, computer-mediated). Actors were rated more favorably when using SGD than their own voices. Actors using SGD were also rated more favorably for highly skilled and highly verbal jobs. This preference for SGDs over mildly dysarthric voice was also found for jobs entailing computer-mediated-communication, particularly skillful jobs.

Consistency between verbal and non-verbal affective cues: a clue to speaker credibility

ABSTRACTListeners are exposed to inconsistencies in communication; for example, when speakers’ words (i.e. verbal) are discrepant with their demonstrated emotions (i.e. non-verbal). Such inconsistencies introduce ambiguity, which may render a speaker to be a less credible source of information. Two experiments examined whether children make credibility discriminations based on the consistency of speakers’ affect cues. In Experiment 1, school-age children (7- to 8-year-olds) preferred to solicit information from consistent speakers (e.g. those who provided a negative statement with negative affect), over novel speakers, to a greater extent than they preferred to solicit information from inconsistent speakers (e.g. those who provided a negative statement with positive affect) over novel speakers. Preschoolers (4- to 5-year-olds) did not demonstrate this preference. Experiment 2 showed that school-age children's ratings of speakers were influenced by speakers’ affect consistency when the attribute being judged was related to information acquisition (speakers’ believability, “weird” speech), but not general characteristics (speakers’ friendliness, likeability). Together, findings suggest that school-age children are sensitive to, and use, the congruency of affect cues to determine whether individuals are credible sources of information.

Testing the evidence effect of Additive Cues Model (ACM)

Since Aristotle, evidence provides a means of support to justify the acceptance of a conclusion. Textbooks used to teach persuasion in courses like public speaking often note the independent importance of speaker credibility, message evidence, and reasoning without necessarily considering the additive persuasive impact of the elements. Advice on how to persuade others requires consistent updating with empirical testing. The current study tests the Additive Cues Model (ACM; Kim et al., 2012; Kim, Allen, Preiss, & Peterson, 2014a) to examine whether increasing the amount of evidence contributes to message persuasiveness in the context of global warming. Contrary to prediction offered by the ACM, the current data show that anti-global warming beliefs do not necessarily increase as anti-global warming evidence increases. Instead, the results present preliminary evidence that the ACM may be used to predict a persuasive boomerang for individuals with high issue involvement on the topic.

Startling Starts: Smart Contact Lenses and Technogenesis

Startling Starts: Smart Contact Lenses and Technogenesis

A Study on Identifying Pronunciation Learning Strategies of Turkish EFL Learners

Pronunciation is an integral part of foreign language learning since it directly affects learners’ communicative competence as well as performance. Poor communication skills can decrease learners’ self-confidence, restrict social interactions, and negatively affect estimations of a speaker's credibility and abilities. Therefore, one of the key elements of language proficiency is to secure acceptable pronunciation for the language learners. The literature on the pronunciation studies revealed that language learners use various pronunciation learning strategies; however, there are very limited studies in number on the use of pronunciation learning strategies in the Turkish context. Thus, this study is an attempt to gain some preliminary insights into the pronunciation learning strategies and diverse tactics that help students learn to produce a foreign language. The study focuses exclusively on the responses of two groups of university students collected through the use of a questionnaire and an interview. This is an experimental study which attempts to elicit a general view over the pronunciation learning strategy use and to compare whether there is any significant difference between the group of learners taking a pronunciation course and the group not attending to any specific course on pronunciation learning.

A Meta-Analysis and an Experiment Investigating the Effects of Speaker Disfluency on Persuasion

A meta-analysis of the speech disfluency literature suggested that the relationship between speaker disfluencies and competence judgments may be mediated. The theory of elaborative resistance production (TERP; Turner & Banas, 2007) was then applied to the effects of disfluencies on speaker persuasiveness. An experiment was conducted such that 240 undergraduate students watched a short video in which a speaker was either high or low reward and produced 0, 1, or 2 verbal disfluencies. Evidence was found consistent with a causal chain running from speaker disfluency to attitude-defensive cognitions, then to ratings of speaker credibility, and then to message acceptance.

Framing Controversial Practices: Frame salience, source credibility, and stock market reaction

Though prior research has suggested the importance of framing controversial organizational actions, the factors that make frames “resonate” and thus effective are still not well understood. In this study, we draw on regulatory focus theory to examine the effect of salience and credibility on frame effectiveness regarding the adoption of “poison pills” between 1983 and 2008. Using content analysis and an event study, we examine how the presence of different framing strategies in adoption announcements affects stock market reaction. Our findings indicate that language reflecting eagerness strategies associated with a promotion focus positively affects stock market reaction to poison pill adoption, while statements emanating from speakers with potentially self-serving interests negatively affect stock market reaction. We further find that speaker credibility moderates the effectiveness of framing strategies. Our findings contribute to a growing stream of work that connects the framing of practices to micro-level theories in social psychology, thus carrying implications for future research on the determinants of frame resonance and effectiveness.

Why Do Humans Reason Sometimes and Avoid Doing It Other Times?: Kotodama in Japanese Culture

After reading Mercier and Sperber's article (2011), I have two questions in mind: Why do humans reason sometimes, and why do they avoid doing it other times? Let me critically examine Japanese culture as a case in point within two questions. Mercier and Sperber assume that humans reason, but I suspect that humans sometimes do reason and avoid doing it other times. To begin with, authors are right in their agreement with Dawkins and Krebs. Mercier and Sperber directly quote Dawkins and Krebs: Reasoning enables people to exchange arguments that, on whole, make communication more reliable and hence more advantageous .... For communication to be stable, it has to benefit both senders and receivers; otherwise they would stop sending or stop receiving, putting an end to communication itself. (as cited in Mercier & Sperber, 2011, p. 60) Following their own logic, where arguing is considered unbeneficial by senders and receivers, it might function to prevent us from producing reasonable beliefs based on critical reasoning. Given 2011 Greater East Japan Earthquake, I want to think about why Japanese sometimes reason and other times avoid doing so. Arguing or engaging in critical reasoning is a modern act, but old traditions die hard. One such example is kotodama: [A] belief, reflected in earliest Japanese sources, that a sacred power or spirit dwells in of traditional Japanese language. Particularly when expressed in certain forms, such as norito (ritual prayers) or waka poetry, it was believed that of Japanese language could exert a special influence on people, gods, and even course of world. Extreme care thus needed to be taken with to utilize their power properly, for good or for ill. Although notion is similar to beliefs in magical power of found in most traditional societies, it has been employed by some modern Japanese thinkers to explain what they believe are special characteristics of Japanese language and culture. (Campbell & Noble, 1993, p. 834) Although kotodama is a pre-modern concept, it still influences or even controls Japanese people. Izawa (1995) explains that in world where kotodama rules, there is no freedom to choose since they are divided into words inviting good and words inviting bad (p. 24). In such a world, to use a word is to realize what it means at same time. It is called kotoage, or realization of what mean. We are supposed to pray (or wish) for good results to come true not because everything will come true. Therefore, only good kotoage shall be permitted, and bad kotoage shall not be. I do not mean to argue that there are no English expressions against bad or fallacious reasoning. But phrases are rather caveats regarding uncritical reasoning or unsupported claims. For instance, wishy-washy means not having clear and firm ideas or beliefs. Crying wolf indicates frequent lying would decrease speaker's credibility. Whereas doomsayer is a pejorative against person whose perspective is overly pessimistic, self-fulfilling prophecy could have a positive connotation to make one's desire true. They do not serve a social role to discourage or hinder argumentation per se, and, thus, they are qualitatively different from kotodama notion. As a result, Japanese are not trained to argue and reason (Suzuki, 2008). For example, so-called power village, or genshiryoku mura, constructed safety myth of nuclear power plants. According to Daily Yomiuri, it is the nickname for a tight circle of government entities, utilities, manufacturers and others involved in promotion of nuclear power who believe nuclear plants are safe and reject out of hand any opposing views (Nuclear, 2011, p. 1). Thus, despite 1979 Three Mile Island accident in United States and 1986 Chernobyl accident in Soviet Union, nuclear power village maintained that Japanese power plants are fail-safe. …

‘You caught ’em!’…or not? Feedback affects investigators’ recollections of speech cues thought to signal honesty and deception

Purpose. When eyewitnesses to crime receive feedback about their choice of a suspect from a line‐up (or post‐identification feedback), such information can substantially alter their recollections of the witnessing experience. This study examined whether feedback exerts similar effects on investigators’ recollections of a suspect's behaviours.Methods. Participant‐investigators received training on speech cues that they were told, when present in a speaker's account, signal either honesty or deception. After hearing a suspect's account of a theft, participants decided whether the suspect was lying or telling the truth. One‐third of participants subsequently received immediate confirming feedback about their performance, while another third received disconfirming feedback. The remaining one‐third of participants did not receive feedback about their decision. Finally, participants rated the frequencies of speech cues that they had been instructed to detect in the suspect's account.Results. Disconfirming feedback significantly altered retrospective judgments about the characteristics of the suspect's account. Specifically, when told that the decision they made about the speaker's credibility was incorrect, participants judged the speaker as having exhibited fewer behaviours consistent with the credibility decision they had made, relative to those who either received no feedback or confirming feedback.Conclusions. Biases in recollections of a suspect may have consequences in real‐world interrogations wherein investigators assess credibility on the basis of numerous behavioural cues. Results are discussed in light of findings of post‐identification feedback studies on eyewitnesses.

Effects of Instructor Speech Rate on Student Affective Learning, Recall, and Perceptions of Nonverbal Immediacy, Credibility, and Clarity

Although research indicates that speech rate affects perceptions of speaker credibility as well as persuasiveness and information recall, research has failed to address how instructor speech rate affects student perceptions and learning. This study randomly assigned basic communication course students to one of three speech rate conditions (slow, moderate, fast), using a videotaped lesson by an instructor. Findings revealed significant differences for credibility, affective leaning, and nonverbal immediacy, but did not reveal significant differences for recall or clarity. Implications for instructional practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Background Behavior in Live Debates: The Effects of the Implicit Ad Hominem Fallacy

This study examined the effects of background nonverbal behavior displayed with the purpose of undermining one's opponent in live debates. Students participated as audience members in one of three versions of a live debate. In one version, the nonspeaking debater remained “stone faced” during her opponent's speech, while in the other two she displayed either occasional or nearly constant nonverbal disagreement. After viewing the debates, students rated the debaters' credibility, appropriateness, and debating skills, in addition to judging who won the debate. Analysis indicated that background nonverbal behavior influenced audience perceptions of some, but not all, dimensions of speaker credibility and only one dimension of debate skill. These results and their implications are discussed.

Indecent influence: The positive effects of obscenity on persuasion

This experiment examined the effects of judicious swearing on persuasion in a pro‐attitudinal speech. Participants listened to one of three versions of a speech about lowering tuition that manipulated where the word “damn” appeared (beginning, end, or nowhere). The results showed that obscenity at the beginning or end of the speech significantly increased the persuasiveness of the speech and the perceived intensity of the speaker. Obscenity had no effect on speaker credibility.

Conversion Conundrums: Listener Perceptions of Affective Influence Attempts as Mediated by Personality and Individual Differences

The study of religious conversion messages is currently an unexplored facet in interpersonal communication and social-cognition research. This study focused on the affective, intellectual, and cognitive needs of potential converts in reference to their attitudes and responses toward ministers utilizing the conversion appeals of fear and comfort. Eighty-nine participants, representing different levels of perceived personal relevance, religiosity (High Religiosity, Low Religiosity, Fundamentalism), familiarity with the type of appeal being made, and High/Low need for cognition were given a religious sermon to view, followed by various response and mood instruments. Results found familiarity with the message type to be a mediating factor of perceived speaker credibility and level of perceived influence, but not necessarily in reference to level of religious grouping. Possible explanations for these findings and applicability of the influence of emotional persuasion in religious conversion sermons were discussed.