The effects of powerful and powerless speech styles and speaker expertise on impression formation and attitude change

Abstract

This study examines the effect of three levels of speaker expertise and two features of powerful and powerless speech styles‐hedges and hesitations‐on impression formation and attitude change. The study found that levels of speaker expertise interacted with the presence or absence of hedges to affect impressions of speaker authoritativeness. Speaker expertise also interacted with the presence or absence of hesitations to change attitudes toward the speaker's message. The results are discussed in terms of their importance for the persuasive impact of powerful and powerless speech styles and their implications for expectancy violation theory as an explanation for power of speech style effects.