Showing papers on "Credibility published in 1981"

Ethos and credibility: The construct and its measurement after three decades

Abstract: Three decades of research involving the definition and measurement of the source credibility construct are reviewed and a new study reported. It is concluded that factor analytic research reported over the past decade has strayed from the original credibility/ethos construct and has treated that construct as virtually isomorphic with the construct of person perception. It is argued that future factor analytic studies of source credibility would serve no useful purpose, that the historical definitions of the construct should be retained, and that satisfactory measures of that construct already exist.

Research On the Utilization of Evaluations A Review and Synthesis

Abstract: An area of concernfor evaluation research is the extent to which evaluations are utilized in policy and program development and change. The current review critically discusses definition of utilization and methodsfor detecting utilization. Five "clusters" of variables have been found to affect utilization. These are: (1) the relevance of evaluation to the needs of potential users; (2) extent of communication between potential users and producers of evaluations; (3) translation of evaluations into their implicationsforpolicy and programs; (4) credibility or trust placed in evaluations; and (5) commitment or advocacy by individual users.

Acceptance yielding and impact: cognitive processes in persuasion.

Abstract: Communication and persuasion research has been hindered by a lack of attention to the decisive role played by the content of a persuasive communication. To be effective the statements contained in a message must directly or indirectly influence the primary beliefs that determine the behavior targeted for intervention. These primary beliefs include beliefs about the consequences of a given behavior or normative beliefs about that behavior beliefs that link the target to various positive or negative attributes and beliefs that are inferentially related to a certain conclusion. The first step in the construction of a persuasive communication is selection of a set of arguments that attack beliefs about the performance of the targeted behavior. For these arguments to be effective the receiver must accept and yield to the evidence contained in the argument consider the evidence to be relevant and ideally undergo a change in primary beliefs not explicitly mentioned in the argument. The content of the message employed is far more significant than factors such as the power and credibility of the message source the type of appeal (i.e. rational or emotional) and receiver factors such as self-esteem.

The Interaction between Comparative Advertising and Copy Claim Variation

Abstract: Despite conceptual benefits expressed for comparative advertising, most studies have found it relatively ineffective and lacking credibility. By means of a field experiment, the author explores the...

Follow-up Studies: Are They Worth The Trouble?

Abstract: is hard to disagree with. However, it is apparent that few institutions of any kind systematically follow up their graduates unless they are required to do so by an external agent in much the same way that the NCATE standards have stimulated follow-up studies. It is the rare school, at any level, which has follow-up data on its graduates at hand. In spite of the pressure applied by NCATE on teacher education programs, violation of the standard calling for follow-up studies was cited as a weakness in 58% of the programs reviewed during 1979-a rate second only to the violation of the governance standards (Wheeler, 1980, p. 125). What might account for this apparent reluctance to study the outcomes of one’s own efforts? One possible explanation is that the anticipated effort, cost, and time requirements are too discouraging. Perhaps an expectation that the data will yield little that can be used in program planning is also a factor. Also, those responsible for programs might be apprehensive about the results such studies might yield.

Effects of Race and Communication Style on Indian Perceptions of Counselor Effectiveness.

Abstract: This article reports the results of a study in which 102 American Indian 11th and 12th grade high school students rated 7 dimensions of perceived counselor credibility and utility. Results indicated that Indian counselors were perceived as more effective than non-Indian counselors and that the non-directive, “facilitative” verbal response style was rated as less effective than either a directive or a cultural/experimental style.

Recursive credibility estimation

Abstract: The paper treats models in which credibility estimators may be updated recursively as time passes. It is shown that when updating the credibility estimators, we get their estimation errors updated as a by-product. The models treated include cases with an unknown underlying random parameter that develops over time.

A Log-Linear Analysis of Media Credibility:

Abstract: would support the hypothesis. Furthermore, even the zero order correlations between mass media variables and birth rate d o not hold up when controls are introduced for any two of these variables literacy, education, employment and income. This lack of a relationship is perhaps understandable in light of what is known about the effects of the mass media and about the difficulty of changing people's motivation to have children. Rogers8 has discussed three reasons that the mass media are not very effective in the diffusion of family planning ideas. These are the limited exposure to the mass media in many less developed nations, the irrelevancy of the messages (because of a wide heterophily gap between sources and receivers), and the low credibility of mass media channels. These factors hamper deliberate programs of family planning; they would work still more strongly against the kind of indirect effects of mass media growth on birth rate suggested by Williams and Singh and investigated here. In addition, a historical analysis by Blake suggests that lowered birth rates in the Western nations came only as a result of a complex of factors that diminished the economic utility of offspring, including urbanization, increased opportunities for social mobility, separation of work from residence, compulsory education, and child labor laws.9 Blake suggests that attempts to lower birth rates may be \"bucking a motivational syndrome that has a built-in 'righting reflex.' \"10 It may be that population control is another area in which Schramm's 1976 question is appropriate: \"Was communication in 1964 expected to accomplish too much by itselj?\"Il On the basis of this study, the answer appears to be yes.

Newspaper Image and Evaluation

Abstract: b A persistent issue in the literature on the mass media has been the image or credibility of the media in general and their credibility relative to each other. Much previous research has been contradictory or discrepant. Several studies have reported that a majority of the public places little faith in the media.' Yankelovich, Skelly and White argue that the public as a whole makes no distinction between the credibility of news-

The influence of researcher methods on television and newspaper news credibility evaluations

Abstract: This study assessed responses to variations of several notable news credibility measures. TV news was evaluated as more credible than newspapers, although its margin of supremacy was a function of researcher operationalizations of the concept.

Factor Study of Dimensions of Advertiser Credibility

Abstract: newspaper as the primary source of information about local events, the married (81%) did so more frequently than did the unmarried (71%). Among the unmarried, Other sources were cited by 16%. Income categories used were pre-tax income for 1979 of Under S5,OOO; $5,OOO to 9,999; s10,OOO to 14,999; S15,OOO to 24,999; $25,000 to 49,999; and S50,OOO and over. In all income groups, a majority named a newspaper as the source of most information about local events, but this was more true of those in the top three categories than in the bottom three. A newspaper was named over other sources of local information by 84%. 83% and 87% of the respondents from the upper three income categories, respectively and by 71%. 68% and 70% of the respondents from the lower three income categories, respectively. In summary, a majority of respondents in three southern California communities named a local newspaper as the source of most information about local events, affairs and activities. Three standard demographic variables-age, marital status and income-were noted t o be significantly lacking in independence from these self-reports of newspaper use. Highest use of a local newspaper for local information would seem to be made by married people in their 50s, 40s and 30s having a n annual income above S15,OOO. Lowest use of a newspaper for local information would seem to be made by unmarried people under 30 with an annual income of less than S15,OOO; still, a majority of these respondents report using a local newspaper for local information. The focus of the Roper question on \"most of your news about what's going on in the world today\" has a cosmopolitan T V Radio Other Totals

The Soviet Press on Soviet Foreign Policy: A Usually Reliable Source

Abstract: Regimes are often preoccupied with maintaining their credibility Great powers wish to convey to their allies the impression that they are not only strong but reliable In limited adversary relationships, credibility is viewed as a resource to perpetuate and develop the more co-operative aspects of a fragile relationship During war time, during the Cold War, or in other sharply adversarial relationships, leaders have an interest in conveying to their rivals a sense of what they consider important Regimes also cherish credibility as part of their own self-image There is yet another, more paradoxical, reason why credibility is valued: it can be used as a resource to achieve deception On the occasions when statements are meant to deceive, the effort will not be effective if it is based on a reputation for thoroughgoing mendacity

and Nothing but the Truth

Abstract: Issues regarding witness credibility are a crucial aspect of most, if not all, courtroom trials Since factual information and evidence are necessarily incomplete and contradictory, “those charged with decision-making, whether they may be judges or jurors, must not only weigh the information and evidence, but must also evaluate the veracity of the opposing evidential and informational sources” (Miller & Boster, 1977, p 28) Sometimes assessments of credibility can be made by comparing a witness’s testimony with that of other witnesses; for example, if six people observe a crime, and five of the six identify the defendant as the culprit while the sixth does not, then unless there are strong grounds for doubting the veracity of the five consistent witnesses, the sixth witness’s testimony will typically be discounted as stemming from error or even deliberate distortion On other occasions, credibility judgments may hinge on extrinsic factors associated with the witness; for example, if it can be shown that a witness’s testimony is self-serving, then it is likely to be viewed more skeptically than testimony free of self-serving motives, or particularly, testimony diametrically opposed to the witness’s self-interest

Qualitative ratings of human development journals.

Abstract: In an attempt to evaluate human development journals in terms of both visibility and credibility, responses from 318 members of the Society for Research in Child Development were obtained to two quest

Legal Aid in Mental Hospitals

Abstract: This report on the experience of five in-hospital legal aid projects and one community-based project for the deinstitutionalized examines the workloads of the lawyers and paralegals who labor in this setting and the various approaches and predispositions they bring to the job or learn while they are at it. The caseloads as well as interviews and observations reveal enormous differences in approach from project to project. The work of some lawyers and their aides confirms the utility and importance of making legal aid directly available to patients on the hospital grounds. But the experience of a couple of other projects warns that certain styles of lawyering can be counterproductive and damaging. In general, lawyers in the mental hospital setting must avoid the legalistic and overly adversarial approach to the problems that are brought to them—many of which are of uncertain legal content, credibility, or psychological makeup. Lawyers must also be careful not to have their own legal priorities get in the way of the best interests of their patient-clients or even those of the hospital as a total institution. The best approach to lawyering in the institutional setting is one that softens the “traditional” legal and adversarial aspects in favor of a more mediatory stance in which fact finding, counseling, and the resolution of issues by compromise are dominant functions. And significant legal attention should be devoted to each of the major categories of problems faced by patients—commitment-discharge, institutional, and civil—if the institutional lawyer's credibility and effectiveness are to be maintained both with the patients and the staffs in charge of their treatment and custody.

Evaluations of Credibility of the Source of a Message

Abstract: This srudy investigated subjects' perceptions of the credibility of message sources who either agreed or disagreed with them on general opinion items and particular written messages. Sixty undergraduate students enrolled in interpersonal communication classes first completed a 10-item questionnaire on campus issues using seven-point scales. The students were also asked to write short signed essays expressing their feelings about the use of bell-curve grading to combat grade inflation. The subjects' ideas served as the basis for written messages developed by the experimenter which either agreed or disagreed with the use of bell-curve grading. Subjects were then asked to rate the credibility of a hypothetical message source who either agreed or disagreed with their ratings of the opinion items and whose written position on grade inflation either agreed or disagreed with theirs. Fifteen subjects were assigned to each cell of a 2 x 2 design. Source credibility was evaluated on a 32-item scale containing items drawn from others' work (1, 2, 3 ) . An oblique factor analysis indicated a factor structure compatible with those reported by the above researchers. Factor scores were constructed from the complete factor loading matrix and used in a multivariate analysis of variance. A significant main effect for the source's written message on bell-curve grading (F4.m = 11.62, p < .001) was noted. Examination of the univariate P-ratios (based on Z scores since both Liken and semantic differential items appeared on the credibility measure) indicated that message sources were judged equally on the trustworthiness factor regardless of whether the~r written comments agreed or disagreed with the perceivers'. Significant F values were discovered for the charisma (F1.w = 11.19, p < .001), co-orientation (F1.w = 4.83, p < .03), and expertise (F1.m = 34.62, p < .001) factors. Subjects found the message source who disagreed more charismatic ( M = -1.83) than the conformer ( M = -2.60). Conversely, the agreeing message source was rated higher in co-orientation ( M = -7.02) and expertise ( M = -4.40) than the disagreeing source ( A I = -7.84 for coorientation and M = 5 32 for expertise). These findings suggest a source promoting a message that disagrees with the receiver's view is well adv~sed to expect and compensate for low evaluations in coorientation and expertise. As long as a substantive message is presented, the disagreeing source can seem reasonably trustworthy and quite charismatic. V

Excess Claims and Data Trimming in the Context of Credibility Rating Procedures

Abstract: : In Ratemaking and in Experience Rating, one is often confronted with the dilemma of whether or not to fully charge very large claims to the claims load of small risk groups or of individual risks. Practitioners typically use an a posteriori argument in this situation: If such large claims should be fully charged then the rates obtained would become 'ridiculous', hence it should not be done. This paper aims at explaining this practical attitude from first principles. Credibility Theory in its standard form makes the first step in the good direction. It explains to use that all claims should not be fully charged (but only with the constant fraction of the credibility weight). In many applications, however, it is still felt that the fraction of this charge should depend on the size of a claim. This leads very naturally to the idea of combining credibility procedures and data trimming.

The Logic of Y=f(X) in the Study of Educational Politics

Abstract: Thomas Eliot's (1959) call for the systematic study of educational politics can be taken as a chronological benchmark to analyze subsequent efforts to provide meaning to the "political" phenomenon within public education. The notification of a needed research agenda, which was to include the study of "institutions' voting behaviors, ideologies, interest groups and all significant political factors" (p. 1,038), signals the initiation of a "field" of the politics of education (Wiles & Layton, 1979) which continues to grow today. Yet, the sustained concentration of interest by rapidly growing numbers of researchers during the past two decades has also generated the fundamental question of credibility in such a study. Initial challenges to the credibility of study efforts focused on questions of researcher motives. Some suggested that "outsider" social scientists "discovered" the need to study educational governance because of increased external resources provided to sustain such efforts during the late 1960's to mid-1970's (lannaccone, 1973). During the last 10 years more substantive challenges have been directed to both the object of study itself and the methods by which systematic inquiry is to occur. At this time, serious students of educational politics can neither assume the viability of a single concept nor the

The communicator's physical attractiveness and credibility as determinants of the effectiveness of a speech.

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to determine the extent to which a speaker's physical attractiveness and credibility may influence the effectiveness of a speech. The following questions were asked: a. Is the speaker effectiveness determined by the speaker's physical attractiveness and credibility? b. Will the attractive speaker be perceived as a less effective speaker, other things being equal? c. Additionally, will the study show which the audience thinks is of greater influence in evaluating the effectiveness of a speaker, physical attractiveness or credibility? A significant F value was hypothesized for the main effects physical attractiveness, sex, and introduction. An introduction effect was also predicted. The confederate speaker served as both the attractive and the not-so-attractive speaker. A no, low, or high credible introduction prefaced each of the attractiveness conditions. A total of six combinations of introduction and attractiveness were used in this experiment. The subjects, all beginning speech class members, viewed a four minute video taped speech. Following the speech each subject filled out an ethos semantic differential and a semantic differential for effectiveness. The resulting ANOVAs revealed that neither credibility nor effectiveness were significant for the main effect attractiveness. The main effect sex was not significant for credibility or