Perhaps inevitably, the evidence-based answer to many pressing applied questions proved to be “It all depends; it's actually very complicated….” For instance, while once it had seemed that the generally positive effects of communicator credibility on persuasion provided a solid building block for successful persuasion, it became increasingly apparent that the effects of even this most obvious variable depended on its interaction with a host of other variables, including perceived motives of the communicator, discrepancy of the message from the initial position of the audience, timing of the information about the communicator's credibility, the personal relevance of the issue to the audience, and so forth (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; McGuire, 1969; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986).