Topic salience and responses to the source of satirical messages

Abstract

This study examined the impact of a satirical message on audience responses to the message source in terms of varying levels of topic salience and prior attitude valence. The two areas of audience responses investigated were source credibility and perception of the source's attitude. The results indicated that (a) the use of satire reduced the likelihood that the speaker would be perceived as having a strong attitude on the topic, (b) satire positively affected source credibility ratings on the sociability and extroversion dimensions, and (c) satire interacted with topic salience and prior attitude to affect composure and character‐competence evaluations.