Abstract
Fake or manipulated images propagated through the Web and social media have the capacity to deceive, emotionally distress, and influence public opinions and actions. Yet few studies have examined how individuals evaluate the authenticity of images that accompany online stories. This paper details a 6-batch large-scale online experiment using Amazon Mechanical Turk that probes how people evaluate image credibility across online platforms. In each batch, participants were randomly assigned to one of 28 news-source mockups featuring a forged image, and they evaluated the credibility of the images based on several features. We found that participants’ internet skills, photo-editing experience, and social media use were significant predictors of image credibility evaluation, while most social and heuristic cues of online credibility (e.g., source trustworthiness, bandwagon, intermediary trustworthiness) had no significant impact. Viewers’ attitude towards a depicted issue also positively influenced their credibility evaluation.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
