Perceived Information Credibility Research Articles

Effects of heuristic and systematic cues on perceived content credibility of Sina Weibo influencers: the moderating role of involvement

The present study enhances our understanding of followers’ perceptions of the information credibility of Chinese social media influencers. Employing the heuristic-systematic model, we examined the influence of source credibility and argument quality on the content credibility of micro-influencers and their relational impact on followers’ attitudes and behavioural decisions, with involvement as a moderator. Chinese respondents who follow beauty influencers on Sina Weibo were targeted. The respondents were contacted by posting a web link on WeChat to the survey created on Sojump. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the relationship between variables. The results revealed that argument quality (i.e. systematic cue) and source credibility (i.e. heuristic cue) are significantly affect the information credibility perceived by consumers. The findings also indicate that perceived information credibility has a significant impact on brand/video attitude and purchase intention. There are notable theoretical extensions to the literature on information processing, attitude and consumer behaviour.

Environmental Communication on Twitter: The Impact of Source, Bandwagon Support, and Message Valence on Target Audiences

The goal of the research is to empirically examine how different factors affect the dissemination of environmental protection messages on social media. The theoretical foundation of the research is based on the literature on heuristics. Perceived bandwagon support, valence of message framing, and source of information (i.e., source credibility) were examined as the independent variables. The dependent variables were perceived information credibility, intention to share the message, and intention to read the article attached to the message. Four online experiments were conducted, and college students were sampled. Overall, the findings suggest that the impact of source, bandwagon support, and message valence affect behavioral intentions and perceived information credibility in various ways, and the extent of such impacts is context-dependent. The findings of the study would advance our theoretical understanding of how we use psychological heuristics to process information related to environmental communication. The findings would also help environmental organizations and activists to better communicate with their potential audiences.

Explore Moderated Mediation of Trust in Social Commerce on Links Between a User’s Perceived Past Negative Experiences and Social Commerce Engagement

Due to the impact of the pandemic (COVID-19) crisis and the inflation threat, not only do companies change their production models, but also their operating modes. The purchase mode of consumers, moreover, are changed. These changes make social commerce (SC) more popular. However, there exist problems in SC. Therefore, not only is the purpose of this study to examine the role of a user’s perceived past negative experience (PPNE) in social commerce (SC) and the impact of trust in SC on a community user’s social commerce engagement (SCE), but is also to explore the moderating effects of perceived information credibility (PIC) on the relationship between a user’s PPNE and trust in SC. 349 valid samples were collected from the target population in Taiwan and analyzed data by AMOS 22 and SPSS PROCESS to examine a conceptual model and three hypotheses. Of the three hypotheses, all hypotheses were supported. The findings not only confirmed the psychological perception and effects of a user’s PPNE on trust in SC and the impact of trust in SC on user’s SCE, but also identified PIC as the moderating role in a virtual user’s PPNE – trust in SC chain. Besides the need for empirical confirmation of the hypotheses given, finally, there are several practical implications for social marketers and future research directions for scholars.

Information processing of food safety messages: what really matters for restaurant customers?

Purpose This study aims to examine how customers’ perceptions of the quality and credibility of restaurants’ food safety information influence customers’ information adoption and, consequently, their trust in the restaurant and purchase intention. It also explores the moderating effects of customers’ food safety knowledge and health consciousness. Design/methodology/approach Participants were asked to read a food safety message from a chain restaurant’s website before taking a self-administered online survey. Using a cross-sectional design, a total of 526 valid responses were collected in the USA through Amazon Mechanical Turk. A two-step approach consisting of a measurement model and a structural equation model was applied to test the direct and indirect effects. Additionally, hierarchical regression models were developed to test the moderating effects. Findings Results show that perceived information quality significantly affects perceived information credibility and has a significant direct and indirect influence on information adoption. Furthermore, information adoption has a direct positive influence on customers’ trust in the restaurant and an indirect effect on purchase intention (full mediation effect of trust). Finally, the moderation effects of health consciousness and food safety knowledge were supported. Practical implications Restaurateurs can apply research findings to increase the likelihood that customers adopt their food safety information and to enhance customers’ trust and, consequently, purchase intention in restaurants. Originality/value Reflecting on framing theory and information processing theory, this study examines the ways that customers process restaurants’ food safety information by developing an original conceptual framework with strong empirical data support.

Consistent comments and vivid comments in hotels’ online information adoption: Which matters more?

Information adoption is the basis for tourists’ decision making. With the rapid development of tourism e-commerce, online reviews—especially negative ones—have become the main way for tourists to obtain information. Applying attribution theory and a situational experiment, we included online review features and external attribution as antecedents and employed consumer brand relationship characteristics as moderating variables. Our aim is to determine how negative reviews affect hotel consumers’ information adoption behavior. We found that the vividness and consistency of negative online reviews had positive impacts on consumers’ external attribution behavior; external attribution had a positive impact on perceived source credibility and perceived information credibility; source credibility and information credibility had positive impacts on perceived usefulness; perceived usefulness had a positive impact on consumers’ information adoption behavior; and brand trust and brand commitment had no significant moderating effects on the effect of negative online reviews. Using these outcomes, we make suggestions for managers about conducting hotel marketing by means of online reviews.

Effects of employee identity salience on content sharing in social networks

PurposeThis research explores whether, when and why employee identity salience influences content sharing of employee's friends in social networks and further investigates two moderating conditions of network overlap and deal content.Design/methodology/approach In Study 1, the authors analyzed a field data related to 20,715 users on the largest social network platform in China. In Studies 2 and 3, the authors verified the findings of Study 1 and tested the underlying mechanism with two experiments.Findings The results showed that employee identity salience could increase sharing likelihood of content receiver, especially when the employee had higher network overlap with receiver. However, when the content contained deal-related information, the receiver was less likely to share this content from employee with salient identity. The authors also found that perceived information credibility acted as a mediator in above relationships.Originality/value This research is the first to test the effects of employee identity salience on content sharing by considering both content type and network characteristics. The authors also provide insights into the mediating role of information credibility, which enriches the content sharing and social network literature.

One Hundred and Sixty-One Days in the Life of the Homopandemicus in Serbia: The Contribution of Information Credibility and Alertness in Predicting Engagement in Protective Behaviors.

COVID-19 pandemic is a long-lasting process associated with dynamic changes within society and in individual psychological responses. Effective communication of measures by credible sources throughout the epidemic is one of the crucial factors for the containment of the disease, and the official communication about pandemics is straightforwardly directed toward changes in behavior via engagement in (self-)protective measures. Calls for the adherence to these measures are aimed at the general population, but people's reactions to these calls vary depending on, for example, their individual differences in cognitive and emotional responses to the situation. The focus of our study was the general narrative about the epidemic as conveyed by both state officials and media outlets in times of decreased social contacts due to the quarantine, in which relying on these sources of information is even more pivotal. Our aim was to explore the stability of the proposed mediational model during the course of the epidemic in Serbia. In the model, we tested the relationship between perceived credibility of information (PCI) and two types of protective behavior—the actual self-protective behavior (ASPB) and the hypothetical protective behavior (HPB), as well as the potential mediating role of alertness in these relationships time-wise. A cross-sectional study (N = 10,782, female = 79.1%) was being administered daily during the first epidemic wave and in three more 2-week time frames during the second wave. Based on the variability of these measures during the first epidemic wave, three stages of psychological responses were mapped (acute, adaptation, and relaxation stage), which were observed, with some deviations, also in the second wave. The mediational model was relatively robust after the initial few weeks, but the strength of pairwise relationships was more changeable. With both types of protective behaviors, the predictive power of PCI was partially mediated through alertness. This suggests that, while individual differences in cognitive and affective responses are important, so is coherent, focused, and credible communication in all stages of the epidemic, which emphasizes the communality aspect of the social containment of the infection. Our findings can thus be valuable in informing the planning of effective future communication.

The Information Diversity Effect on Investor Relations: An Experimental Study on Investors’ Evaluation of a Firm

This study investigated how an investor''s evaluation of a firm varies depending on the type of corporate information presented on the firm’s website. Based on previous studies, three factors were assumed to influence this evaluation: (a) the information itself, (b) the information source, and (c) the investor’s involvement. Using an experiment involving 232 participants, the effect of corporate information quality on an investor’s evaluation was assessed. The results revealed that high information diversity significantly improved the investor’s positive evaluation of a firm. In addition, high investor involvement was more likely to induce positive investment belief in the presence of high information diversity. Perceived information credibility was a mediator in the cognitive path between information diversity and investment belief. On the other hand, a low level of investor involvement was more likely to induce positive investment belief in the presence of a high level of heuristic cues for the information source.

Determinants of the Perceived Credibility of Rebuttals Concerning Health Misinformation.

Users provide and share information with a broad audience on different forms of social media; however, information accuracy is questionable. Currently, the health information field is severely affected by misinformation. Thus, addressing health misinformation is integral for enhancing public health. This research can help relevant practitioners (i.e., government officials, medical and health service personnel, and educators) find the most effective correctional interventions for governing health misinformation. We constructed a theoretical model for credibility-oriented determinants refuting misinformation based on the elaboration likelihood model. We aggregated 415 pieces of valid data through a questionnaire survey. A partial least squares structural equation model evaluated this research model. The results indicated that both perceived information quality and perceived source credibility can enhance perceived information credibility. Under some circumstances, the influence of information quality on information credibility may be more important than that of the information source. However, the cognitive conflict and knowledge self-confidence of information receivers weaken the influence of information quality on information credibility. In contrast, cognitive conflict can strengthen the influence of source credibility on information credibility. Further, perceived information quality can be affected by information usefulness, understandability, and relevance, while perceived source reliability can be affected by source expertise and authority.

RE-CONCEPTUALIZING INFORMATION CREDIBILITY IN THE AGE OF NETWORKING SOCIETY

The main objective of this paper is to re-conceptualize the concept of information credibility. This is due to the fact that the current society, which is best labelled as network society are becoming more complicated in relation to consuming information. The boundary of information producer and consumers are becoming thinner due to the advances in information technology. The existing body of knowledge about information credibility also warrant further investigation. Studies on information credibility are dispersed between the disciplines of communication, information technology and business studies. This has resulted in different conception of information credibility. Thus, this study was carried out using the Grounded Theory approach. There were four focus group discussions held to identify how the current society perceived information credibility. The choice of informants was based on the existing dialogue of digital natives and digital migrants. The finding shows that there is indeed new conception of information credibility. The concept of source and message are being strengthened, while two new concepts; viral and behaviour were added. The finding also reveals generational differences that warrant further investigation. The finding of this study is still open for further test due to the limitations of grounded theory approach.

Need-for-touch and online purchase propensity: A comparative study of Portuguese and Chinese consumers

This study analyses the impact of Need-for-Touch (NFT) on online purchase propensity by evaluating the influence of the consumer's country of origin. Although NFT has been a major topic of research over the past years, the link between NFT and purchase propensity has rarely been empirically proven. For assessing the relationship an online questionnaire was made available in Portugal and China. A total of 295 complete responses were obtained and the data studied through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, namely multivariate analysis of variance and structural equation modeling using AMOS. The results indicate that the consumer's country of origin seems to affect the relevance of the sense of touch for apparel. Consumers with high levels of NFT are more likely to engage in additional brand touchpoints and consequently having stronger brand experiences. The impact of perceived information credibility and brand experience on the perceived product quality influences the propensity to search and to purchase online. Consumer NFT was shown having no direct influence on online purchase propensity but instead is mediated by other variables such as brand experience and the online research propensity. This study is innovative by comparing the NFT between two very different cultures and by providing insights on the relationships between cultural differences and NFT, which could be of great interest for Portuguese companies planning on investing in the Chinese market and vice versa.

Dual effects of social support seeking in patient-centric online healthcare communities: A longitudinal study

This study investigates exploratory and purposeful social support-seeking behaviors in the patient-centric online healthcare community (POHC). The antecedents and varying effects of the two behaviors on uncertainties in diagnosis and treatment are examined. Two rounds of field surveys are conducted among users in three POHCs. Findings indicate that exploratory and purposeful social support-seeking behaviors exert varying effects on the change in uncertainty in illness and are influenced differently by the perceived information credibility of users, their identification with a community, and the perceived severity of their illness.

여행블로그 구성요소가 이용자의 정보탐색 의도와 정보 신뢰도에 미치는 영향

여행블로그 구성요소가 이용자의 정보탐색 의도와 정보 신뢰도에 미치는 영향

The Effect of Social Media on Perceived Information Credibility and Decision Making

Studies have found that information from celebrities, social media influencers, and people whom they know in real life affects millennial consumers’ purchasing decisions. This study investigates how celebrities, influencers, and people whom consumers know personally impacts the ways in which millennials utilize social media information to gain information about consumer products. The study also addresses factors that contribute to trusting that information. Using data from millennial college students, the authors found that Instagram was most utilized for apparel information, while YouTube was most relevant for cosmetic and hair products. However, information from people whom they knew personally was still deemed more trustworthy than that from other sources. Although research suggests that celebrities and social media influencers’ have a positive impact on raising product awareness, marketers should be cognizant that consumers still trust endorsements from people whom they know personally, above all else, regarding their purchasing decisions. Relying on celebrities and social media influencers to promote products does not substitute for or replace targeted marketing efforts to build consumers’ trust. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Making sense of credibility in complex information environments: the role of message sidedness, information source, and thinking styles in credibility evaluation online

ABSTRACT An experiment using a representative sample of US. Internet users in the context of online encyclopedias is conducted to understand how the type of information source (expert-generated, user-generated, or hybrid [both expert- and user-generated]) and message sidedness (one- versus two-sided) affect perceived information credibility. Additionally, individual differences in cognitive styles, including need for cognition and flexible thinking, are hypothesized to moderate these relationships. Results showed that expert-generated messages are regarded as most credible, whereas two-sided messages were only perceived as more credible than one-sided messages when originating from a hybrid source. Moreover, the effect of message sidedness is stronger among people with higher flexible thinking, but not among those with high need for cognition. This study extends knowledge of source type to include the diversity of possibilities available online today, clarifies how message sidedness and type of information source affect the perceived credibility of online information, and offers new insight into how individual psychological differences affect the evaluation of online information credibility, including the identification of flexible thinking as an important variable in this domain. Results of this study help to clarify how people navigate the wide diversity of information options available today in efforts to locate credible information to guide their attitudes and behaviors.

Media Discourse Space Effect on the Professional Development of University Students

The mass media of the first decades of the new millennium (the new media) are characterized not only by the paramount informing function but they are also distinguished by their ability to interact and influence the target audience in both spontaneous and dramatized modes. Simple navigation and a quick and easy accessto their content stand behind the increasing popularity of the new media among younger generation. Modern new media provide the discourse space where young people, or ‘the millennials’, feel as if they are in the center of various political, social and economic events; the so-called ‘Big Brothers’ having impact on people’s life in thesociety. Taking into account the facts that are directly connected with the existence of the youth in the media discourse space, this article aims to track and analyze the influence of the new media on the bachelor’s and master’s students’ professional selfconcept. Our research introduces the working hypothesis that today’s media discourse space affects both directly and indirectly on university students, no matter what their future specialization is. Our students’ survey was conducted in three Russian higher education institutions: Institute of philology and foreign languages, Moscow Pedagogical State University (MPSU, Moscow); Faculty of Science and Technology, South Ural State Humanitarian Pedagogical University (SUSHPU, Chelyabinsk); and Ecological faculty, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University, Moscow). The survey included the responses of the junior and senior bachelor’s students as well as the first- and the second-year master’s students. Young respondents were asked to evaluate the degree of the perceived information credibility, a positive and negativeimpact of present-day social networks on the younger generation and on their professional future; foreign languages and cultural knowledge; the students’ ability to interact with a foreign media discourse space, reading and leaving comments about different events in the Russian and foreign new media. Therefore, we established the correlation between the various types of variables that compose the system of the media discourse space and the students’ multiple reactions to their comprehension of the new media. The key influencing factors in the course of information exchange between students’ world perception and the media world were defined. The main conclusions about the extent of the new media influence (or its absence) on bachelor’s and master’s students and their professional development were drawn in the research.
 Keywords: new media, media discourse space, professional development, professional self-concept, undergraduate and graduate students

Factors affecting YouTube influencer marketing credibility: a heuristic-systematic model

ABSTRACTThe rise of influencer marketing makes YouTube an ideal media platform to implement such marketing strategies. Many scholars consider the success of YouTube influencer marketing as a result of high consumer perception of information credibility. This study employs heuristic-systematic model to investigate how informational cues influence credibility evaluations of information posted by YouTube influencers. An online survey was conducted to investigate the factors, and a two-step, structural equation modelling data analysis approach was utilised to explore the correlation between variables. The results reveal that trustworthiness, social influence, argument quality, and information involvement are influential factors affecting consumer perceived information credibility on YouTube. The analytic results also reveal a strong and positive correlation between perceived information credibility and brand/video attitudes.

I Sought It, I Reddit: Examining Health Information Engagement Behaviors among Reddit Users

Given the wide use of social media, these platforms have become important channels for understanding health-related information engagement processes. Reddit is a social media platform dedicated to user-generated content and discourse around the world. However, little research exists regarding use of the platform. Guided by the diffusion of innovation theory, the purpose of this study was to analyze Reddit users’ behaviors on the platform related to perceptions of information credibility, health information seeking, and behavioral enactment of information found. Data were collected via survey from Reddit users around the world (n = 389). Data suggest that although Reddit use and perceived information credibility are unrelated to acting on the information found on Reddit, users who are specifically seeking health-related information are more likely to enact the information in their lives. Implications from the findings suggest important considerations for communication scholars, media advocates, and health promotion practitioners.

How Experts' Use of Medical Technical Jargon in Different Types of Online Health Forums Affects Perceived Information Credibility: Randomized Experiment With Laypersons.

BackgroundOnline health forums are widely used, but the quality of advice differs as much as the knowledge backgrounds of the audience members who receive the advice. It is important to understand how people judge the information given online. In line with the communication accommodation theory (CAT), online forums represent specific social contexts of communication which can present either accommodative or nonaccommodative language to an audience. Accordingly, use of accommodative or nonaccommodative language might affect people’s perceived trust in the communicator.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to investigate how experts who use accommodative (vs nonaccommodative) language are evaluated by passive users of an online forum.MethodsParticipants (n=98) took part in an online experiment and read experts’ posts about 10 nutrition myths. Following a 2 x 2 mixed design, experts’ posts were written using either low or high amounts of medical technical jargon (MTJ) (within factor) and were directed at different audiences (mainly other medical experts [in a professional forum] vs a user group mainly comprising laypersons [in an advisory forum]) (between factor). Accommodation occurred where experts used high amounts of MTJ to address other medical experts in the professional forum; it also occurred when experts used low amounts of MTJ to address laypersons in the advisory forum. Conversely, nonaccommodation occurred when experts used high amounts of MTJ in the advisory forum and low amounts of MTJ in the professional forum. In each condition, participants evaluated the credibility of the information, the trustworthiness of the experts, and the accommodation by the experts.ResultsOverall, participants judged the credibility of information to be higher when experts used MTJ that was accommodative to the designated audience, F1,95=3.10, P=.04, ηp2=.031. In addition, participants judged the experts in professional forums to be more trustworthy than experts in advisory forums (all F1,96≥3.54, P ≤.03, ηp2≥.036). Moreover, participants rated experts who used high amounts of MTJ to have higher competence (F1,96=37.54, P<.001, ηp2=.28], lower integrity (F1,96=10.77, P=.001, ηp2=.101), and lower benevolence (F1,96=9.75, P=.002, ηp2=.092), as well as to have lower perceived accommodation to the audience (all F1,96≥72.17, P<.001, ηp2≥.43) compared with experts who used low MTJ.ConclusionsTo provide health information online that is perceived as credible, experts should consider using similar language as the language used by the addressed audience. As it is often impossible to determine the exact makeup of an online audience, further research might investigate whether having experts explicitly declare which audience they intend to address can help people to more reliably assess an expert’s trustworthiness. Furthermore, as people assess information differently depending on the context of online communication, it would be valuable for research to consider other aspects of the context beyond those of the audience.

Exploring the effects of specialist versus generalist embodied virtual agents in a multi-product category online store

Embodied virtual agents have been increasingly implemented in e-commerce websites to provide a more natural, social, and engaging way to deliver product information to online shoppers. The media equation theory posits that users’ responses to computer agents adhere to human-to-human social rules; hence, effective designs of embodied virtual agents should be based upon social psychology rules. One such rule is the notion of specialisation. While the concept of media specialisation in terms of TVs, computers, websites, web agents, smartphones, and voice assistants have been examined; no studies have yet to explore the effects of specialists and generalist embodied virtual agents in a multi-product category online store. To bridge this research gap, an experiment was conducted in which university undergraduates (n = 132) were randomly divided to interact with either a multi-product category website that incorporated specialist virtual agents or a multi-product category website that deployed a generalist virtual agent. Consistent with the hypotheses of this study, it was shown that the use of specialist virtual agents (as compared to a generalist virtual agent) enhanced perceptions of agent expertise, information credibility, website trust (ability, benevolence, integrity), and purchase intention. Meditation analyses revealed that the effects of agent specialisation on purchase intention were mediated by perceived virtual agent expertise, perceived information credibility, and website trust (ability, benevolence, integrity). Finally, the effects of agent specialisation were shown to be more evident for females than for males. Theoretical and practical implications related to virtual agent specialisation in the context of multi-product category online stores are discussed in this paper.