Social Cues in News Interfaces: a Key to Building Initial Online Trust

This study aims to analyze the relationship between social media activity and the level of trust in digital news, both disseminated through social media and traditional media. With a quantitative approach and explanatory design, data were collected through a survey of 300 social media active respondents in Indonesia and analyzed using the Pearson correlation test and simple linear regression. Results showed a positive and significant relationship between social media activity and trust in news on social media (r = 0.478; β = 0.472; R² = 0.229), but there was no significant association with trust in news in traditional media (r = –0.108; β = –0.094; R² = 0.011). These findings suggest that nearly a quarter of the variation in trust in digital news can be explained by the intensity of users' social activity in digital media, with trust mechanisms driven more by algorithmic exposure, social validation, and echo chamber effects than institutional credibility. This study confirms and contextualizes the media trust model and agenda-setting theory in Indonesia's digital environment, especially considering that 91% of respondents stated that they first encountered news through social media. This study recommends strengthening digital literacy based on social interaction and developing news distribution strategies adaptive to people's digital trust patterns.

Previous evidence suggests that directional social cues (e.g., eye gaze) cause automatic shifts in attention toward gaze direction. It has been proposed that automatic attentional orienting driven by social cues (social orienting) involves a different neural network from automatic orienting driven by nonsocial cues. However, previous neuroimaging studies on social orienting have only compared gaze cues to symbolic cues, which typically engage top-down mechanisms. Therefore, we directly compared the neural activity involved in social orienting to that involved in purely automatic nonsocial orienting. Twenty participants performed a spatial cueing task consisting of social (gaze) cues and automatic nonsocial (peripheral squares) cues presented at short and long stimulus (cue-to-target) onset asynchronies (SOA), while undergoing fMRI. Behaviorally, a facilitation effect was found for both cue types at the short SOA, while an inhibitory effect (inhibition of return: IOR) was found only for nonsocial cues at the long SOA. Imaging results demonstrated that social and nonsocial cues recruited a largely overlapping fronto-parietal network. In addition, social cueing evoked greater activity in occipito-temporal regions at both SOAs, while nonsocial cueing recruited greater subcortical activity, but only for the long SOA (when IOR was found). A control experiment, including central arrow cues, confirmed that the occipito-temporal activity was at least in part due to the social nature of the cue and not simply to the location of presentation (central vs. peripheral). These results suggest an evolutionary trajectory for automatic orienting, from predominantly subcortical mechanisms for nonsocial orienting to predominantly cortical mechanisms for social orienting.

Learning is a central ability for human development. Many skills we learn, such as language, are learned through observation or imitation in social contexts. Likewise, many skills are learned implicitly, that is, without an explicit intent to learn and without full awareness of the acquired knowledge. Here, we asked whether performance in a motor learning task is modulated by social vs. object cues of varying validity. To address this question, we asked participants to carry out a serial reaction time (SRT) task in which, on each trial, people have to respond as fast and as accurately as possible to the appearance of a stimulus at one of four possible locations. Unbeknownst to participants, the sequence of successive locations was sequentially structured, so that knowledge of the sequence facilitates anticipation of the next stimulus and hence faster motor responses. Crucially, each trial also contained a cue pointing to the next stimulus location. Participants could thus learn based on the cue, or on learning about the sequence of successive locations, or on a combination of both. Results show an interaction between cue type and cue validity for the motor responses: social cues (vs. object cues) led to faster responses in the low validity (LV) condition only. Concerning the extent to which learning was implicit, results show that in the cued blocks only, the highly valid social cue led to implicit learning. In the uncued blocks, participants showed no implicit learning in the highly valid social cue condition, but did in all other combinations of stimulus type and cueing validity. In conclusion, our results suggest that implicit learning is context-dependent and can be influenced by the cue type, e.g., social and object cues.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically test the levels of trust supply chain managers exhibit regarding online auctions. The study seeks to test the hypotheses that supply chain managers with higher levels of trust in online auctions would exhibit more familiarity with online auctions, more positive relationships with suppliers, stronger focus on cost management, a stronger focus on revenue enhancement, and greater levels of participation.Design/methodology/approachA review of the extant literature provided the basis for the development of an online pilot study that was e‐mailed to 100 supply chain managers. The results of the pilot study were used to develop an online survey instrument that was e‐mailed to 2,313 current members of the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and the Institute of Supply Management. A total of 213 usable questionnaires were returned, resulting in a 9.2 percent response rate.FindingsThe data were analyzed via t‐test, MANOVA and ANOVA. The study indicated that online auction users exhibit high levels of trust in online auctions. The study also found that those with higher levels of familiarity with online auctions, with stronger positive relationships with online auction suppliers, and with stronger focus on cost management also exhibited higher levels of trust in online auctions. Contrary to expectations study findings indicate that higher levels of perceived firm profitability and of online auction participation do not lead to increased levels of trust in online auctions.Practical implicationsThe study provides a number of important implications. First, it is important for supply chain managers to recognize the important role that trust continues to play in business relationships. Supply chain managers are advised to be cognizant of the fact that some suppliers may be reluctant to participate in online auctions because they fear participation might damage customer relationships that they have spent years cultivating. Finally, supply chain managers are advised to consider the use of online auctions in order to achieve cost management objectives.Originality/valueThe research makes an important contribution to the literature because it seeks to assess supply chain managers' level of trust in online auctions and how this impacts on the extent to which they participate in this exchange mechanism. An equally important contribution provided by the research is that it focuses on the level of trust in online auctions in general, whereas the preponderance of past research has focused on reverse or price descending auctions only.

The changes in how people consume news and the emergence of digital and distributed news sources call for a reexamination of the relationship between news use and trust in news. Previous research had suggested that alternative news use is correlated with lower levels of trust in news, whereas mainstream news use is correlated with higher levels of trust in news. Our research, based on a survey of news users in 35 countries, shows that using either mainstream or alternative news sources is associated with higher levels of trust in news. However, we find that using social media as a main source of news is correlated with lower levels of trust in news. When looking at country effects, we find that systemic factors such as the levels of press freedom or the audience share of the public service broadcaster in a country are not significantly correlated with trust in news.

This research departs from the problem of the rise of online media that disseminates information using fairly short captions through social media. The number of new media that have emerged also affects the flow of information that is increasingly swift to the public. This study was conducted to determine the level of public trust in news from non-mainstream media USSFeeds on Instagram by containing four dimensions of trust, namely (1) based on selectivity of news topics, (2) based on selectivity of news facts, (3) the level of public trust in accurate depiction, and (4) the level of public trust in journalistic judgment. This research approach uses descriptive quantitative research methods. The results obtained from this study found that in terms of selectivity of news topics, audiences rely on the "ussfeeds" account to get information about lifestyle. In terms of selectivity of facts received by audiences, the results showed that the majority of respondents agreed that the "ussfeeds" account always provides all the latest information based on facts. In terms of accurate portrayal of news, the results showed that most respondents did not agree if the "ussfeeds" information had an accurate portrayal in the dissemination of information. Finally, in terms of journalistic assessment, the results show that most respondents have a high level of trust because the information provided by Instagram "ussfeeds" can be easily captured by its audience. Therefore, it can be concluded that audiences have a high level of trust in lifestyle news from the social media Instagram "ussfeeds".

Prior research has shown that the presence of another individual and type of attention cue (social gaze vs. nonsocial arrow) can modulate attention, with little done to integrate the two. We thus investigate the role of two social presence factors when completing a joint cueing task with either social (gaze) or nonsocial (arrow) cues. Familiarity was operationalized as participants engaged in a prompted conversation either before (n = 60 dyads) or after (n = 59 dyads) the task. To determine the effect of previous responder identity on attention, we contrasted trials where participants responded twice in a row (same responder) with switch trials (different responder), along with whether the previous target was in the same or a different location. Although familiarity only affected global speed and not magnitudes of cueing, we did find that attention to gaze and arrows was differentially affected by previous responder and previous target location. Specifically, for gaze cues muted cueing effects occurred for trials where the previous responder was different, while for arrow cues there was less muting of the cueing effect regardless of previous responder. Taken together, previous responder and previous target location both modulated attention, with the effect on attention dependent on the type of cue, gaze, or arrow.

This research investigates brain connectivity patterns in reaction to social and non-social stimuli within a virtual reality environment, emphasizing their impact on cognitive functions, specifically working memory. Employing the LEiDA framework with EEG data from 47 participants, I examined dynamic brain network states elicited by social avatars compared to non-social stick cues during a VR memory task. Through the integration of LEiDA with deep learning and graph theory analyses, unique connectivity patterns associated with cue type were discerned, underscoring the substantial influence of social cues on cognitive processes. LEiDA, conventionally utilized with fMRI, was creatively employed in EEG to detect swift alterations in brain network states, offering insights into cognitive processing dynamics. The findings indicate distinct neural states for social and non-social cues; notably, social cues correlated with a unique brain state characterized by increased connectivity within self-referential and memory-processing networks, implying greater cognitive engagement. Moreover, deep learning attained approximately 99% accuracy in differentiating cue contexts, highlighting the efficacy of prominent eigenvectors from LEiDA in EEG analysis. Analysis of graph theory also uncovered structural network disparities, signifying enhanced integration in contexts involving social cues. This multi-method approach elucidates the dynamic influence of social cues on brain connectivity and cognition, establishing a basis for VR-based cognitive rehabilitation and immersive learning, wherein social signals may significantly enhance cognitive function.

Nonverbal communication using social cues, like gestures, governs a great part of our daily interactions. It has been proposed that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show a deviant processing of social cues throughout their social cognitive development. However, social cues do not always convey an intention to communicate. Hence, the aim of this study was to test the sensitivity of adolescents and adults with ASD and neurotypical controls to social cues of high communicative (pointing) and low communicative values (grasping). For this purpose, we employed a spatial cueing paradigm with both Cue Types and compared saccadic reaction times (SRTs) between conditions in which the target appeared at a location which was congruent versus incongruent with the direction of the cue. Results showed that both adolescents and adults with ASD had slower SRTs for the incongruent relative to the congruent condition for both Cue Types, reflecting sensitivity to these cues. Additionally, mental effort during the processing of these social cues was assessed by means of pupil dilation. This analysis revealed that, while individuals with and without ASD required more mental effort to process incongruent compared to the congruent cues, cues with higher communicative value posed more processing load for the ASD group. These findings suggest that the perception of social gestures is intact in ASD but requires additional mental effort for gestures with higher communicative value.

What factors influence trust in different news sources? The goal of this study is to examine the role of various demographic factors: gender, age, educational attainment, political leaning, and frequency of social media use. This paper reports relevant results from a crowdsourced experimental study focusing on reporting of science news online. Significant findings include that conservatives place higher trust in fake news than moderates ( p < 0.05), liberals place higher trust in mainstream media than moderates ( p < 0.05), liberals place higher trust in scientific journals than conservatives ( p < 0.01) and moderates ( p < 0.05), and less frequent users of social media place higher trust in fake news than do more frequent users of social media ( p < 0.05). Based on these results, political leaning and frequency of social media use influence trust in fake news, while political leaning also influences trust in mainstream media and scientific journals. These findings shed new light on the important issue of trust in news sources, illustrating the importance of considering political leaning and frequency of social media use in assessing trust in different news sources. These results further underscore the current degree of polarization present in the American public's perceptions of different online science news sources.

Infants begin to produce abstract “math” words – such as numbers (e.g., “two”), spatial terms (e.g., “down”), and magnitude words (e.g., “more”) – during their second postnatal year. Math words, as all words, are likely learned in the home setting during interactions with caregivers. However, everyday early exposure to math talk is understudied. What referents and social cues accompany caregivers’ math-related speech to infants? We examined U.S. infants’ (25 girls, 25 boys; ages 13 to 23 months; 60% white non-Latine) exposure to math words at home during everyday activities with their mothers. We documented three types of math words/phrases (i.e., number, spatial, and magnitude words), their referents (e.g., images in books), and the social cues that accompanied math talk (e.g., gestures). Math words appeared in 15% of mothers’ utterances (13,000+ math utterances in aggregate), increased with child age, mostly specified spatial concepts (e.g., location and direction), and tended to refer to objects and actions in the environment that were relevant to the child, such as toys, books, and the child’s body and behaviors. Social cues accompanied mothers’ math talk about half the time. Notably, certain types of referents and social cues aligned with specific types of math talk (e.g., manual gestures such as points accompanied talk about spatial features such as shapes). In the everyday home environment, infants experience frequent and varied math words, across a variety of activities, in the presence of salient social and contextual cues.

Research has shown that social and symbolic cues presented in isolation and at fixation have strong effects on observers, but it is unclear how cues compare when they are presented away from fixation and embedded in natural scenes. We here compare the effects of two types of social cue (gaze and pointing gestures) and one type of symbolic cue (arrow signs) on eye movements of observers under two viewing conditions (free viewing vs. a memory task). The results suggest that social cues are looked at more quickly, for longer and more frequently than the symbolic arrow cues. An analysis of saccades initiated from the cue suggests that the pointing cue leads to stronger cueing than the gaze and the arrow cue. While the task had only a weak influence on gaze orienting to the cues, stronger cue following was found for free viewing compared to the memory task.

Breeding habitat selection strongly affects reproduction and individual fitness. Among birds, using social cues from conspecifics to select habitat is widespread, but how different types of conspecific social cues influence breeding habitat selection remains less understood. We conducted a playback experiment evaluating if the yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia), a species with two song categories linked to pairing status, uses categories differently when selecting breeding habitat. We hypothesized that yellow warblers use second-category singing mode, which is mostly sung by paired males, over first-category singing mode for habitat selection, as successfully paired males should indicate higher-quality habitat. We broadcast yellow warbler first-category singing mode, second-category singing mode, and silent controls at sites in Illinois. Yellow warblers were more abundant at sites treated with second-category singing mode compared other sites. Our results demonstrate that yellow warblers use social cues informing successful pairing over other types of social cues to select breeding habitat.

For decades the study of social perception was largely compartmentalized by type of social cue: race, gender, emotion, eye gaze, body language, facial expression etc. This was partly due to good scientific practice (e.g., controlling for extraneous variability), and partly due to assumptions that each type of social cue was functionally distinct from others. Herein, we present a functional forecast approach to understanding compound social cue processing that emphasizes the importance of shared social affordances across various cues (see too Adams, Franklin, Nelson, & Stevenson, 2010; Adams & Nelson, 2011; Weisbuch & Adams, 2012). We review the traditional theories of emotion and face processing that argued for dissociable and noninteracting pathways (e.g., for specific emotional expressions, gaze, identity cues), as well as more recent evidence for combinatorial processing of social cues. We argue here that early, and presumably reflexive, visual integration of such cues is necessary for adaptive behavioral responding to others. In support of this claim, we review contemporary work that reveals a flexible visual system, one that readily incorporates meaningful contextual influences in even nonsocial visual processing, thereby establishing the functional and neuroanatomical bases necessary for compound social cue integration. Finally, we explicate three likely mechanisms driving such integration. Together, this work implicates a role for cognitive penetrability in visual perceptual abilities that have often been (and in some cases still are) ascribed to direct encapsulated perceptual processes.

Experiencing social connectedness is important for people’s well-being. Hence, people have an intrinsic drive to maintain social connections with their friends and relatives. Computing and communication technology have an increasingly important role in facilitating people in their sense of connectedness over a distance. Telephone, E-mail, and chat technologies have been available to people for more than two decades now, supporting them in actively having conversations amongst each other without physically being together. Modern communication and information technology makes it possible to communicate more subtle social cues between people. Such social cues are pieces of information that do not contain rich content, such as experiences, thoughts, or ideas. They rather provide a general awareness of presence or action of another person, similar to social cues observed in every day life. For instance, seeing a car parked in front of someone’s house, indicating that person is home, or a neighbor waving to say ‘hi’ without engaging in further conversation. When created unintentionally, these cues are referred to as awareness cues; when created with intention, the cues are called phatic cues. Both types of cues have the potential to support people in having a pervasive sense of social connectedness over a distance, in an addition to communication systems they are already using. Subtle social cues may be created and displayed through a variety of forms and modalities. This research to explore how interactive everyday products may be used to communicate these cues, and how their presence and use support the user’s experience of social connectedness. This ties in to visions on future developments of technology, such as The Invisible Computer, Ambient Intelligence and The Internet of Things, which have described technology to become more and more an integrated part in the fabric of people’s everyday lives. Systems primarily designed to support people in communicating subtle cues are referred to as social awareness systems. Although having been studied before, it has remained unclear whether, and how the features of such systems actually contribute to social connectedness, making it problematic for designers to design effective social awareness systems. The primary goal underlying the research of this dissertation is to generate an increased understanding of how social awareness system should leverage awareness and phatic social cues to support social connectedness for people. The research primarily focuses on the use of tangible forms and modalities, as these are considered to be both more meaningful and better integrated in people’s home environment.