This study used canonical correlation to examine the relationship of 11 individual difference variables to two measures of beliefs in conspiracies. Undergraduates were administered a questionnaire that included these two measures (beliefs in specific conspiracies and attitudes toward the existence of conspiracies) and scales assessing the 11 variables. High levels of anomie, authoritarianism, and powerlessness, along with a low level of self-esteem, were related to beliefs in specific conspiracies, whereas high levels of external locus of control and hostility, along with a low level of trust, were related to attitudes toward the existence of conspiracies in general. These findings support the idea that beliefs in conspiracies are related to feelings of alienation, powerlessness, hostility, and being disadvantaged. There was no support for the idea that people believe in conspiracies because they provide simplified explanations of complex events.

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Assumed similarity refers to ascribing similar attributes to the self and others. Because self-other similarity facilitates communion, people who value communion should be prone to assume self-other similarity; but because self-other similarity also evokes obligation, they may be prone to assume similarity only with others with whom they are or would feel comfortable being interconnected. We tested these hypotheses in 5 studies (total N = 1,709). In Study 1, students indicated their political preferences and estimated other students' preferences. In Studies 2-5, students described their personality and the personalities of the following targets: actual or imagined romantic partners in Study 2; ingroup members (students from the respondents' university) and outgroup members (students from a foreign university) in Studies 3-4; and specific liked and disliked others in Study 5. As hypothesized, people with stronger communal values were more likely to assume self-other similarity with liked others, romantic partners, and ingroup members, but not with disliked others and outgroup members. These effects replicated across different cultures (India, Korea, and the United States) and remained significant when controlling for self-esteem, national identification, and attribute desirability. Although people who valued communion tended to depict themselves and liked and ingroup others in relatively normative (typical) ways, which partially explained assumptions of similarity and indicated that those assumptions were to some extent accurate, communal values continued to predict distinctive self-other similarity or "false consensus" even after controlling for the normative prevalence of attributes.

This study examined the effects of task cohesiveness and interpersonal cohesiveness on group performance on a novel group creativity task. S. Zaccaro and M. C. McCoy (1988) suggested that cohesiveness is 2-dimensional and that the effects of task cohesiveness and interpersonal cohesiveness depend on the task type and the way in which performance is evaluated. The creativity task used here was more interactive than classic idea-generation tasks. Three-person groups were asked to draw a single projected image created by superimposing the images from 3 separate overhead projectors. Drawing performance was judged for creativity and technical quality. The predicted interaction between task and interpersonal cohesiveness was found such that groups in the high task-cohesive and high interpersonal-cohesive conditions produced the most creative group drawings for 1 of the 2 objects presented. Also as predicted, high task cohesiveness alone improved technical quality of the drawings.People count on groups in many ways to complete a variety of important tasks. For example, in academic, organizational, and government settings, groups are asked to solve important problems and to make recommendations about important decisions. Although research identifying variables that are important to high-quality group problem solving and decision making is amassing, relatively little is known about another important task type assigned to groups-creativity.Examples of real-world creativity groups are fairly easy to generate, from advertising creativity teams, to groups of imagineers at Disney, to organizational research and development teams. The types of tasks that these groups are asked to perform, however, may only partially overlap with the most common type of laboratory task used to study creativity-idea generation. Furthermore, simple idea-generation tasks do not allow for complex interaction of group members such as would be found in real groups.The purpose of this study was therefore twofold. First, we wanted to introduce a novel

The present studies explore the role of linguistic extremity on message processing, persuasion, and behavioral intentions. Past research has found that the use of intense language has led to increases in attitude-behavior consistency. The authors present research that suggests that one reason for these effects is because linguistic extremity increases message processing, a common antecedent to attitude strength. Across two studies, linguistic extremity increased message processing relative to a control message. Study 2 replicated the increased processing effects with a different topic, and linguistic extremity led to increases in intentions to sign a petition when the message contained strong arguments. Furthermore, increases in behavioral intentions were mediated by participants' amount of processing. Implications for linguistic extremity as a linguistic marker of attitude strength are discussed.The extent to which a persuasive message is effective can depend on a number of characteristics within the persuasion setting. For example, message content as well as communicator characteristics can determine effectiveness (Bradac,

Language is the most common medium for persuasion. Stylistic variations in how individuals communicate can influence a number of processes and outcomes in a persuasion setting. This article reviews previous research on a number of commonly studied language styles and their influence on persuasion and provides suggestions for future research. First, we provide a review of some of the commonly studied stylistic features and their relation to persuasion. We then use a common multi‐process model of persuasion (i.e., the elaboration likelihood model; Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 1986, New York: Academic Press) to provide an overview of how linguistic styles can influence persuasion. In the final section, we discuss directions for future research on linguistic styles and persuasion.

Although previous research has provided indirect evidence that rhetorical questions can increase attitudinal resistance, what little work that was done was not specifically designed to examine the issue. Current models of attitude change suggest that rhetorical questions can increase persuasion and message processing, creating a relatively strong, resistant attitude. These processing and resistance effects in turn may be mediated by a property of attitude strength such as participants' cognitive responses. In Study 1, placing rhetorical questions in a message increased participants' message processing and counterargument generation relative to a control message. In addition, participants' attitudes were mediated by participants' cognitive responses. Study 2 found that a message containing rhetorical questions increased participants' attitudinal resistance to an attacking message more than a control message, and the resistance effects were related to participants' cognitive responses. These results provide the first direct evidence for the resistance effects of rhetorical question use and for mediators.