The Effects of Expertise and Physical Attractiveness Upon Opinion Agreement and Liking

Source characteristics of expertise (high, low, or no information) and physical attractiveness (high, low, or no photograph) were varied in a 3 X 3 factorial design to examine their effects on the opinion agreement of female adolescents. As expected, opinion agreement was greater for (1) the physically attractive source than for the non-differing unattractive or unpictured sources and (2) the high expert than for the nondiffering low expert or the source about whom no information was given. The nondiffering attractive and unpictured sources were liked more than the unattractive source. Implications for social influence theories are discussed. Among the factors which have been postulated to affect the effectiveness of a source's influence attempts are expertise and interpersonal attraction (e.g., French and Raven, 1959; Tedeschi, 1972). Expertise derives from an actor's ability to provide information to