The impact of audience world view on speaker credibility in persuasive speaking : the case of Afrocentric and Eurocentric audiences

Abstract

Speaker credibility is a key concept in persuasive speaking. The aim of this study was to investigate the interaction between audience world view and the formation and application of speaker credibility in persuasive speaking, comparing Afrocentric audiences with Eurocentric audiences. The theoretical premise of the study was that speaker credibility is a stratified construct with foundational and context-specific dimensions, and that the variation in the formation and application of speaker credibility could be accounted for by audience world view. Persuasion was conceptualised as a speaker-managed process which occurs through the intentional use of the tools of persuasion adapted to the audience and refers to the degree of the outcome of the process relative to the speaker's intended effect. Speaker credibility was conceptualised as a construct with a hierarchically ordered stock of universal and contextspecific factors of moral, relational, content-related competence and performance qualities. Subsequently, it was posited that audiences form and apply credibility dimensions that emphasise the evaluation of persuasive speakers in terms that are unique to their (audiences') world view orientations. World view was conceptualised as a five-component construct, with epistemological, axiological, perceptual, chronemic and ontological dimensions. Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism as specific world view orientations were analysed and their possible influence on the formation and application of speaker credibility were proposed. A world view questionnaire was developed and administered. Item analyses were performed on the . basis of the scores on the world view questionnaire, from which a world view index was constructed. A semantic differential and a persuasive speech were developed. Two groups of students participated in the study as convenient sample audiences. Group 1 completed the world view index after which it was divided into two similar sub-groups. One sub-group listened to a black persuasive speaker, the other sub-group listened to a white persuasive speaker. The sub-groups completed the semantic differential immediately after they listened to their respective speakers. The same steps were followed for Group 2. The data were analysed, primarily utilising factor analysis. The main contribution of this study lies in its major findings, which are as follows: • The race of the speaker did not make any significant difference in the formation and application of speaker credibility. V • The audience with a primarily Afrocentric world view orientation formed and applied speaker credibility dimensions that emphasise the evaluation of persuasive speakers in terms of a general speaker credibility criteria, encompassing subject competence; moral, relational and presentation qualities; aesthetic aspects and, possibly, age-based qualification. • The audience with a primarily Eurocentric world view orientation formed and applied speaker credibility dimensions that emphasise the evaluation of persuasive speakers in terms of moral quality, aesthetic aspects and subject competence. • Under the same persuasive speaking conditions, the Afrocentric audience and the Eurocentric audience formed and applied different configurations of the speaker credibility dimensions. • There are indications that there is a relationship between audience world view and the formation and application of speaker credibility. • Afrocentric and Eurocentric world views are not rigid differentiations; they are primary orientations, with similarities and differences that seem to transcend race.