De Voorkeur Voor Expertevidentie in Nederland en Frankrijk

Numerous studies have investigated the persuasive effects of different evidence types as support for claims in persuasive messages, but little attention has been paid to the preference that people have for these evidence types. In Hornikx (2003), expert evidence, which relies on the expert's confirmation of the claim, was more frequently used in French than in Dutch persuasive information brochures. As text writers are professionals, experienced in designing persuasive texts, their preferences for evidence types may differ from those of lay people. In order to test whether this cultural difference also applies to lay people, 174 Dutch and French students were given claims supported by evidence, and were asked to rank the evidence types in function of their preference. Two subtle cross-cultural differences appeared: the French put expert evidence more frequently in the first position, and ranked it more frequently before statistical evidence, which was the most preferred evidence type in both groups.