Chapter 9 Interesting Topic

The section in Chapter 9 that resonated most for me was the Social Characteristic description of Credibility. In this section the book highlights the two subcategories of credibility as: expertness and trustworthiness. Expertness is a speaker who is knowledgeable about a subject while someone who demonstrates concern for the audience’s interests is viewed as trustworthy. These two descriptions resonated most with me as I have a long-time friend who is very good at convincing you that they are an expert on any subject matter, period. I have tried on many different occasions to describe that confidence does not translate well into being a subject matter expert, or being trust-worthy. Where this individual excels is their ability to make you question your own confidence on a subject. They know just enough obscure but relevant facts about a wide breadth of subjects that they can very convincingly talk about these subjects. It is only through careful consideration of evidence, or very concrete examples that the receiver can hold onto their own confidence. This individual is viewed as being very persuasive to most people, who also only have passing knowledge of a subject. Unfortunately, where this individual fails miserably is when the receivers are possess more intimate knowledge of the subject then the speaker does. That’s when the receiver begins to realize that the speaker has zero credibility and any prior perceived expertness or trustworthiness is put into question.