The Power of Persuasive Speech:
The Interplay between Ethnicity, the Speaker, His or Her Message, and the Audience
by Michael Panfil
An Independent Study Thesis
Submitted to the Department of Political Science and Psychology
at The College of Wooster
March, 2007
in partial fulfillment of the requirements of I.S. Thesis
Abstract:
The interplay between a speaker’s ethnicity and a listener’s ethnicity
was examined in two studies. The first, psychologically oriented, study analyzed
the impact that a speaker’s ethnicity had upon listeners. Listeners of
differing ethnicities were asked to watch a speech and then rate the speaker’s
persuasiveness. The results indicated that when the speaker and listener are
of the same ethnicity, the speaker’s message is more persuasive than if
the speaker and listener are of differing ethnicities. The second, political
science oriented, study examined the impact that a candidate’s ethnicity
had upon the views of his or her constituents. This results of this study indicated
that the ethnicity of a candidate did not significantly impact the voting decisions
of his or her constituents. The results of each finding were integrated to form
a cohesive conclusion. This conclusion indicated that a speaker’s message
is more persuasive to listeners of the same ethnicity then to listeners of differing
ethnicity when the speaker’s message is not a significant factor.