The Effect of Cultural Differences, Source Expertise, and Argument Strength on Persuasion

ABSTRACT The predictions derived from the Elaboration Likelihood Model and Hofstede's culture model are tested with 76 Canadian and 185 Thai undergraduate students in a 2 (cultures) 3 (source expertise levels) 2 (argument strength levels) factorial between-subjects quasi-experiment. Three dimensions of culture-power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism-collectivism-are predicted to affect the weight of source expertise and argument strength in persuasion. As expected, source expertise has a greater impact on persuasion in the Thai culture (high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, and collectiv-ist) than in the Canadian culture (low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, individualist), whereas argument strength has more influence in the Canadian than in the Thai culture.