By definition, intra-personal factors such as the receiver's attitude to the subject matter and the extent of her personal involvement may well be largely unknown to the communicator. Sherif and Hovland attempted to summarize the effect of these two factors by saying that the person's position on an attitude scale provides her with an anchor from which she evaluates other positions on the attitude scale and that evaluation will be the firmer and more difficult to shift the greater the degree of ego-involvement. Age Age is an important variable.
People reach maximum persuasability around the age of nine.
Hence the Hitler Youth, East Germany's Young Pioneers and, for that matter, the Cubs and Brownies. Sex Sex appears to be of some limited significance, women apparently being more easily persuadable than men. However, this research was conducted a long time ago when women saw themselves and their r le differently, so this may well have changed. Personality Personality variables such as self-esteem, anxiety and depression have an influence on persuadability. See especially the section on the authoritarian personality .