The present research proposes that sources in the numerical majority (vs. minority) can affect persuasion by influencing the confidence with which people hold their thoughts in response to the persuasive message. Participants received a persuasive message composed of either strong or weak arguments that was presented by a majority or a minority source. Consistent with the self-validation hypothesis, we predicted and found that the majority (vs. minority) status of the source increased the confidence with which recipients held their thoughts. As a consequence, majority (vs. minority) sources increased argument quality effects in persuasion when source status information followed message processing (Experiment 1). In contrast, when the information regarding source status preceded (rather than followed) the persuasive message, it validated the perception of the position advocated, reducing message pro-cessing. As a consequence of having more confidence in the position advocated before receiving the message, majority (vs. minority) sources reduced argument quality effects in persuasion (Experiment 2). Finally, Experiment 3 isolated the timing of the source status manipulation, revealing that sources in the numerical majority (vs. minority) can increase or decrease persuasion to strong arguments depending on whether source status is introduced before or after processing the message.

Head nodding and shaking are bodily signals of approval and disapproval, respectively. Previous research has shown that these movements can be used to shape attitudes by means of evaluative conditioning. In the present experiment, the authors studied the conditions under which evaluative conditioning with head movements can alter social attitudes. Specifically, the authors investigated whether the evaluative conditioning effect depends on the order in which the target stimulus and the head movement are presented. The results showed that repeated coupling of head nodding with out-group names reduced neg-ative implicit associations with this out-group only when the head nodding movement followed the target name. No effects were found when the movement preceded the name in the conditioning procedure. The authors conclude that embodied evaluative conditioning effects are constrained to a sequence of the target stimulus and head movement that corresponds to the natural temporal script in which the stimulus precedes the evaluative embodied reaction. Keywords embodied conditioning, embodiment, head nodding/shaking, temporal order, implicit prejudice Head nodding and shaking are strong communicative signals that people use to convey their thoughts and feelings. Not only do we nod or shake our heads in response to a question that

Summary Background Unnecessary antibiotic prescribing contributes to antimicrobial resistance. In this trial, we aimed to reduce unnecessary prescriptions of antibiotics by general practitioners (GPs) in England.

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