The Influence of Source Credibility on Communication Effectiveness

Hovland, C. I., & Weiss, W. (1951). The Influence of Source Credibility on Communication Effectiveness. Public Opinion Quarterly, 15(4), 635-650.

Type

Journal article

Intellectual base

Primary research

Year

1951

Volume

15

Issue

4

Pages

635-650

DOI

10.1086/266350

DOI registrant

Oxford University Press

Link

https://doi.org/10.1086/266350

Cited from

cognitive_science

Cited by

2 citations across 2 artifacts.

Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.

Primes

• Differential Decay
  • Persuasion psychology (sleeper effect): a persuasive message attached to a low-credibility source; the source discount fades faster than the message, so net persuasion increases with delay although nothing in the message changed.

Mechanisms

• Trust Repair Before Persuasion Rule
  • Its instinct — more reassurance, a bigger safety campaign — backfires: louder messaging from a source now seen as unreliable confirms the suspicion rather than dispelling it, because trust sits below the range where persuasion lands.

    This sourceFinds that audiences initially discount persuasive messages attributed to untrustworthy sources.

Verification

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