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An empirical test of the relationship between expectations, language intensity, and gender

Burgoon and colleagues have applied Expectancy Theory to the study of language intensity, arguing that a complex pattern of effects can be explained in terms of the expectations people hold for sources of persuasive communication. It is argued in this paper, however, that because expectations have not been directly examined, Expectancy Theory has not provided a fair test of hypotheses. The current investigation aims to alleviate this problem by determining whether expectations people have for male and female sources of persuasive communication do in fact differ. Using a variety of message topics, expectations for male and female sources were investigated by asking respondents to provide the language choices they thought would be most effective for male and female authors of persuasive communication. What the results suggest is that both men and women should utilize moderate to high intense language to be optimally effective in suasory attempts.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/278263
Date January 1992
CreatorsMassey, Joseph Eric, 1964-
ContributorsJackson, Sally
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Thesis-Reproduction (electronic)
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

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