Perception of the sincerity and competence of a communicator as a function of the extremity of his position

Abstract An experiment investigated the effect of amount of communicator-communicatee discrepancy on the perception of the communicator's sincerity and competence. After answering an opinion questionnaire, college males were given a page of the questionnaire supposedly filled out by another student and asked to rate his sincerity and competence. The results supported the hypotheses that a communicator with an extreme position on the same side of an issue as the communicatee will be perceived as more sincere and more competent than a communicator with a moderate position on the same side; and that a communicator with an extreme position on the opposite side will be perceived as more sincere but less competent than a communicator with a moderate position on the opposite side.