Persuasive Communication - How Audiences Decide. 2nd Edition

Person Perception in Audience Decision Making 263

of the interview said they would not have invited the candidate back for a second interview. Con-

versely, 23 of the 26 recruiters who saw the second version said they would have invited the candidate

back.^13 A follow-up study of actual job interviews found that no job candidates who had inhibited

nonverbal behaviors (such as minimal eye contact, low energy, lack of affect, low voice modulation,

and lack of speech fl uency) during a fi rst interview were invited back for a second one.^14

Person Perception and Job Applicants’ Decisions

Just as recruiters’ staffi ng decisions are affected by their impressions of job applicants, job appli-

cants’ employment decisions are signifi cantly affected by their perceptions of recruiters.^15 In a

study of 237 college students who had been interviewed for jobs, students described their reac-

tions to recruiters and indicated their subsequent decisions. The students’ perceptions of the

recruiters’ personalities and their manner of delivery, as well as the adequacy of information

the recruiters provided, signifi cantly infl uenced the students’ evaluations of the recruiting fi rms

and the likelihood they would accept a job offer from them.^16 In a study of online recruitment,

students viewed videos on recruitment websites featuring either cheerful recruiters providing

feeling-inducing information or formal recruiters providing fact-laden information. Sixty-two

percent of the students decided to apply for jobs at organizations whose recruitment websites

featured cheerful recruiters.^17

Person Perception and Financial Analysts’ Decisions

Financial analysts’ investment decisions are signifi cantly affected by their perception of the fi rm’s

management. In a nationwide survey of 268 top fi nancial analysts, 42% of the analysts surveyed

reported their personal evaluation of top management is worth more than 60% of their total valu-

ation of the company’s price/earnings multiple. An additional 34% said their personal appraisal of

management is worth more than 33% of their total valuation.^18

Person Perception and the Decisions of Speakers’ Audiences

Audience perceptions of the source of information can also impact their decisions. For example,

consumers’ perceptions of the spokespeople who advertise products infl uence their purchase deci-

sions.^19 The reputation and enthusiasm of the employees who propose new projects are the among

the six most frequently mentioned criteria senior managers use to select new projects to commer-

cialize, mentioned more often than profi tability.^20

The audience’s initial impressions of a speaker’s credibility and likeability play an especially

important role in the speaker’s ability to persuade them.^21 The more positive the audience’s per-

ceptions of the speaker, the more persuaded they are by the speaker’s message.^22 Sometimes the

audience’s impression of a speaker is the main determinant of the audience’s decision, especially

when their interest in the speaker’s message is low.^23 For this reason, the nonverbal behaviors of

spokespeople in TV ads are often more highly correlated with an ad’s persuasiveness than its verbal

content.^24 The audience’s perception of the speaker also becomes a major determinant of the deci-

sion when they are distracted from paying attention to the speaker’s message.^25

Role Schemata of Expert Audiences

There is widespread agreement among social psychologists that social knowledge and expertise

are held in schemata.^26 One type of schema—role schemata—embodies much of the expertise