What Is the Effect of an Authoritative Figure on Different Age Groups?

Overview

Objectives/Goals The purpose of this experiment was to investigate how different age groups would react to an authoritative presenter versus a non-authoritative presenter. When given a speech with some clearly false information, would subjects rate the accuracy of the information higher when it was presented by an authoritative figure? Based on background research, my hypothesis was that pre-teens (10-12) and adults (30+) would believe both figures equally while teenagers (13-19) would favor the authoritative presenter. Methods/Materials This project involved about 25 people in three different age groups as well as an authoritative presenter (adult, well-dressed, confident) and a non-authoritative presenter (child, casually dressed, hesitant). The presenters read a speech with about half of the information being clearly false to two different test groups. The subjects were then given a questionnaire that asked them to rate their belief in the accuracy of the presenter's information. Results The data showed that belief in the accuracy of the authoritative presenter decreased as the age of the subjects increased, most likely due to the subject#s greater knowledge of the material. The pre-teens highly favored the authoritative presenter and did not favor the non-authoritative presenter. The teenagers believed both figures equally. The adults strongly disbelieved the non-authoritative presenter. The results were roughly the same for male and female subjects. Conclusions/Discussion My hypothesis was not supported by my data. The data showed that the belief in accuracy of an authoritative presenter decreased with age. It also showed that pre-teens and adults favored the authoritative figure over the non-authoritative figure while teenagers believed both figures equally.

Competition history

• CSEF 2010 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry J0318

Resources

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