Culture, Personality, and Persuasibility

The studies of general persuasibility and personality by Janis and Field were replicated in a Chinese culture, and differences in persuasibility between Americans and Chinese investigated. The persuasibility test and personality inventory used by Janis and Field were adapted. Intercorrelations among opinion changes on different topics showed some individual consistency in persuasibility. But factor analysis indicated that a general persuasibility factor, as suck, was not prominent in inducing responses to persuasive communications. From correlational analysis, low persuasibility appeared indicative of a neurotic personality. The Chinese subjects were significantly more persuasible than the American subjects. It has been a common-sense notion that some people, for one reason or another, are more readily persuasible than others. Systematic studies of consistent individual differences in persuasibility, however, have been undertaken only recently. Earlier findings are summarized by Hovland, Janis and Kelley.' Notable among these was the positive evidence by Ferguson.2 Hovland, et al., reported further evidence of consistent individual differences among college males in their susceptibility to persuasive communications. In a later study, Janis and Field correlated opinion changes on five different topics and factor