Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Relationship Of Locus Of Reinforcement To Change In Initial Perception Of Communicator Credibility And Type Of Decision Generated, Stephen Allan Brown

Student Work

Hovland, Janis, and Kelley (1953) distinguished between expertness and trustworthiness, two variables most relevant to communicator perception. They defined expertness as the extent to which a communicator is perceived to be a source of valid assertions and trustworthiness as the degree of confidence in the communicator's intent to communicate the assertions he considers most valid. They defined communicator credibility (degree of belief) as incorporating both expertness and trustworthiness but concluded that there was experimental confounding of both variables.