Effects of Nonfluencies on Speaker's Credibility in Newscast Settings

Abstract

80 subjects viewed or listened to either audiotaped or videotaped versions of a newscast in which the same announcer made varying numbers of speech errors. Ratings of the speaker's competence decreased as the number of such errors increased in newscasts in which the announcer was only heard. Increased numbers of speech errors did not significantly affect perceptions of the speaker's trustworthiness or dynamism or recall of content regardless of the newscast's medium.