Conversation as a resource for influence: evidence for prototypical arguments and social identification processes

Members of eight single-sex groups each consisting of three pro- and three anti-capital punishment adherents discussed their views for 30 minutes, and afterwards individually rated ingroup and outgroup members on social influence ranking, prototypicality, and social attractiveness. From the intragroup hypothesis that speaking turns are a resource for influence (Ng & Bradac, 1993), we predicted and found that turns were correlated strongly with influence in the intergroup context. Further, using self-categorization theory (SCT; Turner, 1985), we hypothesized that social identity processes would interact with turns, especially with turns obtained through interruptions. Interruptions encoded in prototypical utterances were more strongly correlated with social influence and prototypicality, but not social attraction, than interruptions encoded in non-prototypical utterances. Further, interruption attempts enacted in prototypical utterances were found to be more likely to be successful than unsuccessful in obtaining turns, while those enacted in non-prototypical utterances were more likely to be unsuccessful than successful. Additionally, interruption turns were longer when enacted in prototypical over non-prototypical utterances. Overall, the findings suggest that the power/influence of language is interactively organized and constructed around salient self-categorizations. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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