Abstract
In this study, acceptance-rejection of a suggestion was investigated from the standpoint of social contact between a suggestee and a suggestor. In particular, credibility of the suggestor's ability in a certain field was built up through the process of experimental operations, and the author's attention was focused on the relationship between credibility and acceptance-rejection of a suggestion given by the suggestor.
Hypothesis: Acceptance-rejection of a suggetion in a certain field depends upon the degree of credibility of the suggestor's ability in the field.
Experimenter: Kouhei Suzuki
Suggestor: A certain person named A.
Subjects (suggestees): 387 lower secondary schoolchildren.
Experimental instruments: Drawing papers, Drawing test papers, black and red pencils, a taperecorder and a stop-watch.
Procedure: (1) (The process of creating credibility)
At first subjects were told that a certain person named A had already performed the tasks of drawing. And it was instructed that the aim of each subject's engagement was to judge (evaluate) the ways taken in tasks by A in terms of relevancy. (Six papers were to be drawn and each of them had two possible ways of drawing, one of which was made more relevant than the other. Subjects were informed the ways chosen by A from the experimenter. After having judged six ways taken by A, each subject reported the degree of credibility of A's drawing ability by checking the questionnaire.
(2) (Giving a suggestion)
Then, each subject was confronted with the test task of drawing and was told that each one was to be examined his (her) own drawing ability and was encouraged to do his (her) best. The test task had five possible ways and any of them was allowed to be taken up by a subject. When subjects were going to begin their tasks, the suggestion from A which recommended one of those five ways was reported to subjects by the experimenter. And then, they started the test. Thus, acceptance-rejection of the suggestion occurred.
Findings: The points of analyses in the process of creating credibility were these, “the four types of processes designed in the experiment and the degree of credibility”, “the degree of difference in the performance scores and the degree of credibility”, and “the degree of judgment and the degree of credibility”. Each of them showed that the latter depended upon the former.
The analyses in the relation of credibility and acceptance-rejection, i.e., “the degree of credibility and the degree of acceptance” and “the degree of credibility and the strength of acceptance” showed that the higher the degree of credibility grew, the higher and the greater the degree and the strength of acceptance became.
