The influence of field dependence, speaker credibility set, and message documentation on evaluations of speaker and message credibility

Abstract

To determine the influence of field dependence, speaker credibility set, and message documentation on evaluations of speaker and message credibility, 60 field dependent and 60 field independent subjects were assigned to one of four experimental conditions in which speaker credibility set and message documentation were manipulated factorially. Subjects’ evaluations of the message and the speaker revealed that high speaker credibility set resulted in more positive evaluations of speaker and message credibility than did low speaker credibility set, that concrete documentation resulted in more positive evaluations of speaker and message credibility than did vague documentation, and that field dependence is only peripherally related to evaluations of speaker and message credibility.