This study was designed to investigate four problem areas of communication research: source credibility, language intensity, the gender of source as it affects the source's persuasiveness and credibility, and the scarcity of multifactor studies using gender of source as one of the independent variables. Independent variables for the study, which employed a 2x2x2 factorial design, were initial source credibility, gender of source, and language intensity. Pretests given to the 250 subjects established high and low levels of initial source credibility and language intensity. Dependent variables were source credibility and attitude favorableness toward the message position. Results indicated that a source's initial credibility was not affected by the source's gender or language usage and that the low credible sources were more persuasive than the high credible sources. (JM)