The Relationship Between Locus of Control and the Evaluative Consequences of Powerful and Powerless Speech Styles

This article examines the impact of receivers\u27 locus of control on their evaluations of speakers exhibiting powerful or powerless speech. The results indicated that those with an external locus of control evaluated a high-power message more positively than did those with an internal locus of control. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that a speaker using a powerful style is threatening to receivers and causes them to bias their speaker evaluations positively. The results also address the apparent paradox between the positive evaluations received by a high-pourer message and the negative connotations associated with power and dominance