Effects of ethnic, sex, and attitude similarity on counselor credibility.

Surveyed 63 male and 64 female Mexican-American community college students to determine their attitude toward acculturation. Ss were then randomly assigned to receive written material describing the sex, ethnicity, and attitude toward acculturation of a counselor they subsequently heard in a tape-recorded excerpt of a counseling session. After reading the written introduction and listening to the counseling excerpt, Ss rated the counselor's credibility and attractiveness on the Counselor-Effectiveness Rating Scale (CERS). A repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant interaction between attitude similarity and the repeated factor (CERS subscales). Post hoc analyses indicated that Ss' ratings of their willingness to see the counselor were significantly lower than other credibility ratings for those Ss who were exposed to a counselor with a dissimilar attitude. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)