Attitude change in the communicator and the prior opinions of his audience

Includes bibliographical references (pages 29-31)In an experiment designed to examine attitude change in the communicator as a function of the prior opinions and nature of his audience three variables, each with two levels, were studied: the prestige of an audience (high and low), the perceived beliefs of that audience (pro and con) and the type of essay subjects were to write (proattitudinal and counterattitudinal). All essays concerned the dispensation of birth control pills by the Student Health Center.\ud It was predicted that subjects' post speech opinions on the topic would be affected by the prior opinions of his audience only when the audience was high in prestige. This hypothesis was not supported. It was found, unexpectedly, that subjects who wrote an essay to a low prestige audience changed their private attitudes to a greater extent than subjects who wrote an essay to a high prestige audience. It was also found that both audience position and type of essay significantly affected subject's tendency to drop out of the experiment. Subjects who wrote an essay to an audience thought to oppose the dispensation of birth control pills by the Student Health Center or who wrote a counterattitudinal essay "dropped out" to a greater extent than those subjects who wrote an essay to a pro audience or wrote a pro-attitudinal essay