Discusses the probative potential of evidence in argument, and evaluates the importance of evidence in predicting belief change. Predicts adherence to argument claims and confirms the traditionally recognized importance of evidence to persuasion. (JMF)

Three exploratory studies were aimed at describing the purposes of lies and the consequences of lying. Data were collected through a partly open-ended questionnaire, a content analysis of several tape-recorded interviews, and a large-scale survey. The results showed that two of every three lies were told for selfish reasons, while three of every…

Discusses a study designed to investigate people's conceptions of what believability should entail and how these conceptions differ over topic-situations. (MH)

A study investigated whether older persons as a group are generally more persuaded by high authority figures than are younger persons. The study employed a design that allowed for extensive comparisons among subjects of different ages in terms of their willingness to be persuaded by physicians in interpersonal situations. One hundred-twenty…

Recent research on the role of personal space has demonstrated the effects of violating or not violating a spatial norm on the perceived persuasiveness, credibility, and attractiveness of the message source. The persuasive impact of personal space violations has been difficult to interpret because of the failure to effectively manipulate source…

A study was conducted to examine the evaluative criteria or schemata that voters use in making decisions about competing candidates. More specifically, the study sought to determine (1) whether the criteria that voters employ differ between the candidates, and (2) the relative importance of various candidate-specific criteria in the voting…

Rating scales were developed and applied to evaluate deferential/nondeferential language users. Participants were 1,262 college students in small discussion groups containing two experimenter's confederates who used either deferential or nondeferential language. The characteristics of deferential language users were questioning/tentative behavior,…

A serious problem in the area of attitude research is the low relationship between verbal attitude and supposedly related overt behavior. A study tested a model derived from M. Deutsch's proposition on persuasive communication stating that for communication to be effective in a conflict situation, it must convey to the information receiver the…

A model of the generation of initial trusting attitudes toward groups by individuals who were not members of those groups was developed from the literature on interpersonal trust. The model proposed that perceptions of situational threat would be preconditions to the saliency of trust as a concept. Given that trust was a salient concept, the model…