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A study of reactions to a novel product attributed the invention to either an expert or a novice. Comprehension of the product description was manipulated by varying information exposure time (Study 1) and contextual prior knowledge (Study 2). As predicted by the heuristic-systematic model comprehensibility moderated the persuasive impact of source expertise. When comprehension was low, subjects relied on the inventor's expertise in forming their attitudes toward the product, but when comprehension and hence, systematic processing were higher, source expertise had no impact on subjects' attitudes. In a pilot study, however, subjects attributed comprehensibility to the source and derogated incomprehensible communications. Copyright 1991 by the University of Chicago.
Ratneshwar et al. (Sat,) studied this question.