Lawrence A. Hosman

The effects of hedges and hesitations on impression formation in a simulated courtroom context

The purpose of this research was to refine the concepts of powerful and powerless speech styles by investigating evaluative reactions to hedges and hesitations in a simulated trial context. We asked whether hedges, hesitations, and respondent sex would interact to affect listeners’ evaluations of a speaker. We also asked whether these language variables affected perceptions of guilt. We found that a low level of hedges and hesitations produced the most positive evaluations of authoritativeness and attractiveness. The study also revealed that these variables affected perceptions of guilt.

Language Style and Sex Bias in the Courtroom: The Effects of Male and Female Use of Hedges and Intensifiers on Impression Information.

Recent work on legal communication has emphasized the importance of language style in forming impressions of witnesses and defendants. This study looked at two aspects of linguistic style which have been associated with legal communication—hedges and intensifies. This study also investigated whether the sex of the subject and the sex of the witness were related to subjects’ evaluations of a persons credibility, attractiveness, and blameworthiness. The results revealed that the sex of the witness was related to subjects’ evaluations of his/her credibility and attractiveness when using hedges and when using intensifies. The sex of the subject did not produce any significant effects. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for sex differences in the courtroom.

Employment Interview Outcomes and Speech Style Effects

This study examines the effects of powerful versus powerless speech styles on employment interview outcomes, extending and refining research by Wiley and Eskilson. Undergraduate and professional respondents listened to one of eight audiotaped interviews manipulated by speech style, interviewer gender, and interviewee gender and evaluated the interviewees’ dynamism, social attractiveness, competence, and employability on Likert-type scales. Results indicate that a powerful speech style results in positive attributions of competence and employability and that professional respondents evaluated the speech styles differently than did undergraduates. Implications for the employment interview are discussed, and directions for future research are also identified.

Powerful and Powerless Language Forms Their Consequences for Impression Formation, Attributions of Control of Self and Control of Others, Cognitive Responses, and Message Memory

This study investigates the effect of hedges, tag questions, intensifiers, and powerful messages on four sets of dependent variables: speaker evaluation, control of self and control of others attributions, cognitive responses, and message memorability. The results show that the four message types differ across measures of dynamism, control of self and control of others attributions, and three cognitive response categories. For the speakerevaluation and control-attribution variables, intensifiers are evaluated most positively and hedges are evaluated most negatively. On the cognitive-response measures, a more mixed pattern of results emerges. The results are discussed in terms of their importance for understanding the cognitive processing of these four message types.

Reciprocal disclosures and language intensity: Attributional consequences

This study examined the personality attributions made of a second speaker when (1) he reciprocated or failed to reciprocate the intimacy level of a disclosure made by an initial speaker and when (2) he matched or failed to match the initial speakers level of language intensity. Results indicate that a speakers level of language intensity qualifies to some extent the positive judgments of reciprocated initimacy and the negative judgments of non‐reciprocated intimacy obtained in previous research. Other findings indicate that (1) high intimacy and high intensity result in attributions of high speaker internality and (2) a perceivers own tendency to disclose affects his or her judgments of high‐ and low‐intimacy messages which vary in language intensity.

THE IMPACT OF POWER-OF- SPEECH STYLE, ARGUMENT STRENGTH, AND NEED FOR COGNITION ON IMPRESSION FORMATION, COGNITIVE RESPONSES, AND PERSUASION

This study investigated the impact of power-of-speech style, need for cognition, and argument quality on participants’ perceptions of a speaker, cognitive responses, and attitude toward the topic. Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion, it was hypothesized that the three independent variables would interact to affect cognitive responses and attitude toward the topic. The results did not support the hypothesis. Path analysis was also used to analyze the data. The path analysis revealed that power-of-speech style had a small, direct effect on attitude and several, indirect effects mediated by cognitive response categories. Argument quality had a direct effect on attitude toward topic. The results are discussed in terms of their importance for the persuasive effects of power-of-speech style, with specific focus on the role of speech style in an ELM framework.

Disclosing Self to Friends and Family: A Reexamination of Initial Questions.

This study reinvestigated questions raised by Sidney Jourard in the initial stages of research on self‐disclosure. Using new conceptualizations and measures, this study attempted to assess the viability of previous research conclusions. The study specifically investigated the effects of discloser sex, topic of disclosure, and the target of disclosure on five dimensions of reported self‐disclosure. With 104 undergraduate volunteers as subjects, 2 × 2 × 2 (sex by topic by target) analysis of variance and follow‐up tests revealed that disclosures to both parents were more positive but less honest, frequent, and intimate than to best same‐sex friend. Topic affected or interacted to affect three of the dimensions of disclosure while the sex variable interacted to affect only one. These results provide little support for the conclusions drawn by Jourard. Evidently, topic and target now function as constraints on the ways individuals reveal information about themselves.

Hedges, Tag Questions, Message Processing, and Persuasion

This study explored the effects of tag questions, hedges, and argument quality on receivers’ perceptions of a speaker, perceptions of message quality, cognitive responses, and attitude change. The results showed that tag questions and argument quality directly affected speaker and message quality perceptions and cognitive responses. They also interacted to directly affect perceptions of the speaker’s power and credibility. Mediational analyses also showed that tag questions and argument quality had indirect effects on attitude change. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the cognitive processing of and research on linguistic markers of powerlessness.

Prolific publishing: Professional and administrative concerns

Numerous reports of “prolific publishing” in the communication discipline rank actively publishing researchers, females, administrators, and institutions. We argue that these studies are methodologically weak and may communicate the false message to junior faculty that scholarship is a “numbers game” with academic winners and losers. This essay critiques the notion that quantity of publications, rather than quality, is an appropriate measure of individual or institutional productivity, that prolific publishing garners professional repect or rewards, and that teaching is secondary to publishing.

The evaluational consequences of topic reciprocity and self‐disclosure reciprocity

Although numerous studies have examined the evaluative consequences of topic‐ or self‐disclosure reciprocity, none has examined the combined consequences of topic‐and self‐disclosure reciprocity. This study focuses on the combined evaluative consequences. It was hypothesized that messages which reciprocated both topic and intimacy would be more positively evaluated than messages which reciprocated only topic or intimacy. In turn, messages which reciprocated only topic or intimacy would be more positively evaluated than those reciprocating neither. An experimental study supported the hypothesis for initial low intimacy messages, and partially supported it for initial high intimacy messages. The results are examined in terms of competing interactional goals in a self‐disclosure context.