The Effect of Regional Similarity-Dissimilarity on Communicator Credibility

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Abstract
Using English Canadian university students as subjects, an experiment was conducted to examine the effects of regional identification in responses to written communications relevant and irrelevant to regional norms. For a communication advocating separatism for Quebec, an English Canadian communicator was judged to be both more trustworthy and more competent than a French Canadian communicator. For the other communication, advocating obligatory financial contributions by alumni to their Alma Mater, no communicator differences were found. Inconsistencies between these findings and previous findings led to the view that the emotional tone of the communications was an important operating variable.