Abstract:
Claims of bias in other people are common, but when do we perceive bias in others?
Some research has looked at the links between bias and trustworthiness, perceived ulterior
motives, and close-mindedness. This thesis looks at the influence of a source’s certainty on the
bias that audiences perceive. Before reading a fictional political campaign message about a race
for local county commissioner, participants were presented with a statement with one of three
levels of certainty about the message. In these statements, the communicator indicated either
high certainty or uncertainty. In the third control condition, no indication of certainty was made
about their position. Source certainty was not found to influence perceived bias in the scenario
studied; however, source certainty did influence perceptions of the source’s credibility.
Perceived credibility mediated the effects of source certainty on perceptions of argument quality
