Current Volume 9
Abstract
This study examined the psychological mechanisms of interpersonal manipulation, specifically focusing on how the "power" of linguistic style influences an individual's perceived credibility. Undergraduate students (N=51) were presented with transcripts of a legal testimony where the independent variable—the "powerfulness" of the speaker's language—was manipulated. One group received a "powerless" version containing hedge words (e.g., "sort of"), intensifiers (e.g., "very"), and fillers (e.g., "you know"), while the other group received a "powerful" version devoid of these markers. We predicted that participants would rate the powerful speaker as significantly more credible than the powerless speaker. Results indicated a strong correlation between linguistic style and perceived authority, consistent with previous findings that social manipulation often operates through subtle, covert cues that bypass strategic reasoning (Franke & van Rooij, 2015). This suggests that credibility is frequently a byproduct of linguistic style rather than factual accuracy.
Citations
IRE Journals:
Sarah Bhatia "The Psychology of Manipulation: The Impact of Language Power On Perceived Credibility" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 9 Issue 11 2026 Page 66-68 https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I11-1717215
IEEE:
Sarah Bhatia
"The Psychology of Manipulation: The Impact of Language Power On Perceived Credibility" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals, 9(11) https://doi.org/10.64388/IREV9I11-1717215
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