Communication and Social Influence Processes

Charles R. Berger ( Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1968) is a professor in the Department of Rhetoric and Communication at the University of California, Davis. He is currently coeditor of Communication Research, and serves on the editorial boards of seven journals and annuals. He is former editor of Human Communication Research. Dr. Berger has authored more than 60 articles and book chapters, and has published Language and Social Knowledge: Uncertainty in Interpersonal Relations (with James J. Bradac), a volume that won the Speech Communication Association's Golden Anniversary Award. He has also coedited Social Cognition and Communication (with Michael E. Roloff) and Handbook of Communication Science (with Steven H. Chaffee). His current research concerns the strategies that individuals use to alter communication plans when they are not understood by others in social interaction situations.

Franklin J. Boster ( Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1978) is a professor in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University. His interests center around group dynamics and attitude change, and he has published articles on these topics in various journals including: Communication Monographs, Communication Research, Human Communication Research, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Brigham Young Law Review, and Trial. The initial research that forms the foundation for Boster's chapter was published in Communication Monographs in 1977; it received the Charles H. Woolbert Award from the Speech Communication Association in 1989.

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