Question

Name someone you consider to be a credible speaker. How much does the person’s credibility depend on his or her message as compared to who he or she is (e.g., character and trustworthiness, similarity to you, attractiveness)? (250 words)

Answer 1

While delivering a message many factors play an important role such as source credibility, message credibility, channel of communication etc. The research often indicates that the higher the factors of source credibility such as attractiveness, competence or trustworthiness, the greater the message persuasion happens. The audience  are more likely to accept message when the source of the message are perceived as credible, attractive and trustworthy.An individual who is seen as more trustworthy and competent in the issue on hand is highly likely to bring about more change in a person's attitude.People are more influenced by people with whom they share commonalities. therefore similarity places an important role in the process of persuasion. For example while working with Black students, message from black person is more influential than message from a white person.

Apart from source credibility and character, message credibility also plays an important role in the persuasion process as it highly impacts the degree of persuasion.The credibility of a message refers to the extent to which a message is considered as acceptable, reliable and valid .The source that conveys the message can also substantially influence the message credibility.

Therefore, in order to bring about an influential persuasion, it is important that both the factor that is source credibility as well as message credibility combine together.