Krueger, Kori
(2017)
THE IMPACT OF ANOTHER PERSON’S RESPONSES TO OPINION
COMMUNICATION: SHARED REALITY, EPISTEMIC TRUST, AND BELIEF
CERTAINTY.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Agreement has been linked to both epistemic and interpersonal benefits. As such, people like to be in agreement with others and strive to stay in agreement. Yet, little is known about whether and how the way in which agreement is reached affects epistemic outcomes. In a lab experiment with a 3 x 2 design, undergraduate participants stated their opinion about a target person to a partner who ostensibly (a) either agreed before and after the communication (fortuitous agreement), shifted from disagreement to agreement (persuaded agreement), or consistently disagreed (no agreement); and (b) either praised their argument quality (substance evaluation) or presentational style (style evaluation). I hypothesized that the fortuitous and persuaded agreement conditions would yield a greater experience of shared reality (H1) and thus, greater epistemic outcomes than the no agreement condition (H2A), and that the relationship between agreement and epistemic outcomes would be mediated by the experience of shared reality (H2B). I also hypothesized that a substance evaluation would lead to greater shared reality and epistemic outcomes than a style evaluation, but only in the persuaded agreement condition (H3). Results supported H1 and H2A, partially supported H2B, but did not support H3. The fortuitous and persuaded agreement conditions yielded greater shared reality, higher belief certainty, and greater epistemic trust than the no agreement condition. Agreement type’s effect on epistemic trust was mediated by the experience of shared reality but shared reality did not mediate the relationship between agreement type and belief certainty. A substance (vs. style) evaluation did not lead to greater shared reality or epistemic benefits. These findings fill an important gap in the literature and highlight the utility of considering both how agreement is reached and the resulting experience of shared reality when examining epistemic outcomes of agreement.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
15 June 2017 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
27 February 2017 |
| Approval Date: |
15 June 2017 |
| Submission Date: |
13 April 2017 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
66 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Psychology |
| Degree: |
MS - Master of Science |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
shared reality, epistemic trust, certainty, opinion formation, communication |
| Date Deposited: |
15 Jun 2017 23:02 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Jun 2017 23:02 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/31463 |
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