Persuasiveness and Persuasibility as Related to Intelligence and Emotional Responsiveness

Abstract

This study was concerned with the contribution of intelligence and emotional responsiveness to persuasiveness and persuasibility of human Ss. Each pair of Ss was required to discuss a topic on which they had initially divergent opinions, with the persuasiveness of one over the other defined as shorter latency of first statement and higher frequency of participation in the discussion, and persuasibility as likelihood of opinion change. Three groups of pairs of Ss were involved. In all groups one member of each pair was high in intelligence and high in emotional responsiveness, with the other pair member low in intelligence and low in emotional responsiveness in the first group, low in intelligence and high in emotional responsiveness in the second group, and high in intelligence and low in emotional responsiveness in the third group. Contrary to expectation, highly intelligent-highly emotionally responsive Ss proved to be less persuasive in all of the groups and more persuasible when paired with Ss of low intelligence and low emotional responsiveness. It was suggested that high emotional responsiveness may have interfered with the adequate expression of high intelligence.