Credibility Ratings Research Articles

COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media and Public’s Health Behavior: Understanding the Moderating Role of Situational Motivation and Credibility Evaluations

The spread of misinformation on social networking conduit regarding COVID-19 pandemic poses deleterious consequences on public health. The author advance the body of knowledge on tackling misinformation to generate positive health behavior responses by proposing a conceptual framework based on the theory of persuasion and behavior change. Furthermore, as a belief antecedent, conspiracy theory is also used in this study. The author, using structural equation modeling technique, explored the three hundred seventy-three participants’ belief in conspiracy theory and religious misinformation and their influence on intention and behavior. Those direct relationships were tested by the joint moderating role of situational motivation and credibility evaluations. The study revealed that the situational motivation and credibility evaluation jointly and individually (in some cases) weaken the strong positive relationship between misinformation (conspiracy theory and religious misinformation) and health belief, health belief and intention, and intention and health behavior regarding COVID-19. The findings of this study offer guideline for policymakers to generate favorable health behavior regarding COVID-19 and any other epidemic or pandemic. Directions for researchers to any further extensions are also placed.

Modeling and Comparing Brain Processes in Message and Earned Source Credibility Evaluation

Understanding how humans evaluate credibility is an important scientific question in the era of fake news. Source credibility is among the most important aspects of credibility evaluations. One of the most direct ways to understand source credibility is to use measurements of brain activity of humans who make credibility evaluations. This article reports the results of an experiment during which we have measured brain activity during credibility evaluation using EEG. In the experiment, participants had to learn source credibility of fictitious students based on a preparatory stage, during which they evaluated message credibility with perfect knowledge. The experiment allowed for identification of brain areas that were active when a participant made positive or negative source credibility evaluations. Based on experimental data, we modeled and predicted human source credibility evaluations using EEG brain activity measurements with F1 score exceeding 0.7 (using 10-fold cross-validation). We are also able to model and predict message credibility evaluations with perfect knowledge, and to compare both models obtained from a single experiment.

Atypical behaviours found in some mental health conditions negatively affect judgments of deception and credibility

ABSTRACT Objective Unusual behaviours are commonly perceived to indicate deception and low credibility. However, they may also characterise individuals with certain mental health or developmental conditions, thus making those individuals vulnerable to negative judgements. We examined the effect of four behaviours – gaze aversion, body movements, monologuing, and flat affect – on judgements of deception and credibility. Method In an online experiment, we presented participants (N = 392) with videos of actors being interviewed about their involvement in stealing money. In each video, the actor was either instructed to display one of the four behaviours or was not instructed to display any particular behaviour (control condition). Participants were then asked to provide ratings of perceived deception and credibility. Results There were significant effects of body movements and monologuing on perceived deception, and significant effects of monologuing and flat affect on the specific credibility dimension of perceived caring. Gaze aversion did not have a statistically significant effect on perceived deception or credibility. Conclusion Body movements, monologuing, and flat affect negatively affected deception and credibility judgements. Populations who commonly display these behaviours, such as individuals with certain mental health or developmental conditions, may be vulnerable to unfair evaluations in the criminal justice system. KEY POINTS What is already known about this topic: Based on self-report measures, unusual behaviours are widely believed to be indicators of deception and low credibility. There is no empirical evidence that behavioural cues are reliable indicators of deception or credibility. Gaze aversion, repetitive body movements, monologuing, and flat affect are common among individuals with certain disabilities and mental health conditions. What this paper adds: This study provides experimental support for the effect of repetitive body movements, monologuing, and flat affect on judgements of deception and credibility. Individuals who present with repetitive body movements, monologuing, or flat affect due to a disability or mental health condition may be subject to unjust evaluations of deception and credibility. There is an important need for further research on how individuals with disabilities and mental health conditions are perceived in the criminal justice system.

Metacognitive therapy self-help for anxiety-depression: Single-blind randomized feasibility trial in cardiovascular disease.

Background: One in three cardiovascular disease (CVD) patients experience significant anxiety and depression. Current psychological interventions have limited efficacy in reducing such symptoms and are offered as a face-to-face intervention that may be a barrier to accessing treatment. We evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of delivering assisted home-based self-help metacognitive therapy (home-MCT) to cardiac rehabilitation (CR) patients experiencing anxiety and depression. Method: One hundred eight CR patients with elevated anxiety and/or depression were recruited to a single-blind randomized feasibility trial across two United Kingdom National Health Service Trusts and were randomized to usual CR or usual CR plus home-MCT. The feasibility and acceptability of adding home-MCT to CR was based on credibility or expectancy ratings, recruitment rate, drop-outs, number of CR and home-MCT modules completed, and ability of outcome measures to discriminate between patients. The study was used to refine the sample size estimate for a full-scale trial. The quality of telephone support calls delivered by CR staff trained in MCT was assessed. Results: Home-MCT was found to be feasible and acceptable for the current CR patients with anxiety and depression. Recruitment and retention of participants was high, and attendance at CR was similar for both groups. Completion of home-MCT was high, but the quality of telephone support calls delivered was lower than expected. Conclusions: Home-MCT was acceptable and feasible to deliver to CR patients experiencing anxiety and depression, and the feasibility of conducting a full-scale trial of the intervention was established. Home-MCT may provide additional treatment options for cardiac patients experiencing psychological distress.

The effect of autistic behaviors on evaluations of deception and credibility in everyday social situations

AbstractBehaviors such as gaze aversion and repetitive movements are commonly believed to be signs of deception and low credibility; however, they may also be characteristic of individuals with developmental or mental health conditions. We examined the effect of five behaviors that are common among autistic individuals—gaze aversion, repetitive movements, misinterpretation of figurative language, monologues, and flat affect—on observers' evaluations of deception and credibility. This study focused on judgments made in everyday social situations which contrasts with most previous studies which have examined such judgments in contexts (e.g., legal proceedings) where they are of primary importance. In three experiments, we presented participants with video segments of individuals being interviewed about biographical information and participants then indicated their perception of the individuals' truthfulness and credibility. Overall, individuals were perceived as more deceptive and less credible when they displayed autistic behaviors than when they did not; however, the effect sizes detected were weak.

Validation of a Bayesian Diagnostic and Inferential Model for Evidence-Based Neuropsychological Practice.

Evidence-based diagnostic methods have clinical and research applications in neuropsychology. A flexible Bayesian model was developed to yield diagnostic posttest probabilities from a single person's neuropsychological score profile by utilizing sample descriptive statistics of the test battery across diagnostic populations of interest. Three studies examined the model's performance. One simulation examined estimation accuracy of true z-scores. A diagnostic accuracy simulation utilized descriptive statistics from two popular neuropsychological tests, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV (WAIS-IV) and Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). The final simulation examined posterior predictive accuracy of scores to those reported in the WAIS manual. The model produced minimally biased z-score estimates (root mean square errors: .02-.18) with appropriate credible intervals (95% credible interval empirical coverage rates: .94-1.00). The model correctly classified 80.87% of simulated normal, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease cases using a four subtest WAIS-IV and the RBANS compared to accuracies of 60.67-65.60% from alternative methods. The posterior predictions of raw scores closely aligned to percentile estimates published in the WAIS-IV manual. This model permits estimation of posttest probabilities for various combinations of neuropsychological tests across any number of clinical populations with the principal limitation being the accessibility of applicable reference samples. The model produced minimally biased estimates of true z-scores, high diagnostic classification rates, and accurate predictions of multiple reported percentiles while using only simple descriptive statistics from reference samples. Future nonsimulation research on clinical data is needed to fully explore the utility of such diagnostic prediction models.

How the expertise heuristic accelerates decision-making and credibility judgments in social media by means of effort reduction.

Real-time communication, unlimited distribution of information, and the lack of editorial supervision in social media communication aggravate recipients’ credibility evaluations and information selection by what aspects of the source such as expertise have emerged as important anchors for evaluations. It has long been assumed that credibility judgments in social media are specifically guided by heuristics. However, the existing studies merely give indications, for example, based on individuals’ self-report but do not test whether important attributes and prerequisites of heuristic decision-making, such as effort reduction, are present. Against this background, the current study (N = 185) analyses by applying a reduced two-alternative choice paradigm whether the relation between the expertise cue and credibility judgments and the choice of information sources is guided by a heuristic, namely the expertise heuristic. Findings indicate that the presence of the expertise cue reduced respondents’ task latencies significantly, although participants’ decision behavior was not independent from additional information. This is discussed in detail with recourse to theoretical conceptualizations of cognitive heuristics.

Managing enterprise social media to develop consumer trust

PurposeThis study examines the impact of social media information sharing and usage on consumer beliefs particularly in the credibility of the information provided by e-commerce vendors, and consumer trust formation.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on trust through social media usage and surface credibility, the authors have proposed a research model to investigate consumers satisfaction on food and beverage (F&B) products. Empirical support for the research model was provided by using structural equation modelling using survey data drawn from Malaysian consumers with an account with Facebook.FindingsResults indicate that consumer participation in social media communities support higher levels of consumer trust and ratings of the surface credibility of information provided by an F&B vendor, and surface credibility also helped to develop consumer trust. Trust in the vendor also exerted a positive influence on consumer satisfaction with F&B product offerings. Results suggest that F&B that provide credible and transparent information regarding their branded products, enjoy increased levels of consumer trust, leading to higher levels of consumer satisfaction with their F&B consumption experience.Originality/valueThe result of this research contributes to social commerce branch of literature and has practical implications for practitioners in the F&B industry as a means to survival strategies to embrace critical and challenging period during an endemic, particularly. As such, this study analyses the relationship between social media usage, surface credibility, trust and satisfaction for developing consumer trust while managing enterprise social media.

Adolescents’ credibility justifications when evaluating online texts

Research has shown that students differ in their abilities to evaluate the credibility of online texts, and, in general, many perform poorly on online evaluation tasks. This study extended current knowledge by examining students’ abilities to justify the credibility of online texts from different perspectives, thus providing a more nuanced understanding of students’ credibility evaluation ability. We examined how upper secondary school students (N = 73; aged 16 to 17) evaluated author expertise, author intention, the publication venue, and the quality of evidence when reading four texts about the effects of sugar consumption in a web-based environment. Additionally, we examined how students’ prior topic knowledge, Internet-specific justification beliefs, and time on task were associated with their credibility justifications. Students evaluated author expertise, author intention, the venue, and the quality of evidence for each text on a six-point scale and provided written justifications for their evaluations. While students’ credibility evaluations were quite accurate, their credibility justifications lacked sophistication. Inter-individual differences were considerable, however. Regression analysis revealed that time on task was a statistically significant unique predictor of students’ credibility justifications. Instructional implications are discussed.

What Did They Learn? Objective Assessment Tools Show Mixed Effects of Training on Science Communication Behaviors

There is widespread agreement about the need to assess the success of programs training scientists to communicate more effectively with non-professional audiences. However, there is little agreement about how that should be done. What do we mean when we talk about “effective communication”? What should we measure? How should we measure it? Evaluation of communication training programs often incorporates the views of students or trainers themselves, although this is widely understood to bias the assessment. We recently completed a 3-year experiment to use audiences of non-scientists to evaluate the effect of training on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) graduate students’ communication ability. Overall, audiences rated STEM grad students’ communication performance no better after training than before, as we reported in Rubega et al. 2018. However, audience ratings do not reveal whether training changed specific trainee communication behaviors (e.g., jargon use, narrative techniques) even if too little to affect trainees’ overall success. Here we measure trainee communication behavior directly, using multiple textual analysis tools and analysis of trainees’ body language during videotaped talks. We found that student use of jargon declined after training but that use of narrative techniques did not increase. Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores, used as indicators of complexity of sentences and word choice, were no different after instruction. Trainees’ movement of hands and hesitancy during talks was correlated negatively with audience ratings of credibility and clarity; smiling, on the other hand, was correlated with improvement in credibility, clarity and engagement scores given by audience members. We show that objective tools can be used to measure the success of communication training programs, that non-verbal cues are associated with audience judgments, and that an intensive communication course does change some, if not all, communication behaviors.

Exploring the Credibility of Psilocybin-assisted Therapy and Cognitive-behavioral Therapy for Depression

ABSTRACT Depression treatments succeed with many but leave others unimproved, and they can generate concerns about side effects, time, and cost. Psilocybin has generated media attention and empirical support for antidepressant effects, but lay impressions of its effectiveness are unclear. Although perceptions of treatment credibility contribute to outcome, beliefs about the credibility of psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) among potential patients remain uninvestigated, especially relative to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), a common, empirically-validated approach. The present study examined credibility ratings for CBT and PAT among individuals reporting depressive symptoms. Participants (N = 803) from Amazon’s MTurk platform reported demographics, depressive symptoms, and psychotherapy experience, then read data-based vignettes describing each therapy and rated their credibility. Individuals rated CBT as more credible than PAT. Those with therapy experience rated CBT as more credible than those without. Men and lifetime hallucinogen users rated PAT more credible than women and non-users, but few other predictors accounted for much variance in credibility. Results suggest that potential clients appear cautious about PAT. As continued work examines the effectiveness of psychedelic-assisted interventions, researchers and clinicians must consider patients’ beliefs about treatments as potential predictors of outcomes. Additionally, the paradigm used here might have potential for examining credibility of many interventions.

FNU-BiCNN: Fake News and Fake URL Detection using Bi-CNN

Fake news (FN) has become a big problem in today's world, recognition partly to the widespread use of social media. A wide variety of news organizations and news websites post their stories on social media. It is important to verify that the information posted is genuine and obtained from reputable sources. The intensity and sincerity of internet news cannot be quantified completely and remains a challenge. We present an FNU-BiCNN model for identifying FN and fake URLs in this study by analyzing the correctness of a report and predicting its validity. Stop words and stem words with NLTK characteristics were employed during data pre-processing. Following that, we compute the TF-IDF using LSTM, batch normalization, and dense. The WORDNET Lemmatizer is used to choose the features. Bi-LSTM with ARIMA and CNN are used to train the datasets, and various machine learning techniques are used to classify them. By deriving credibility ratings from textual data, this model develops an ensemble strategy for concurrently learning the depictions of news stories, authors, and titles. To achieve greater accuracy while using Voting ensemble classifier and compared with several machine learning algorithms such as SVM, DT, RF, KNN, and Naive Bayes were tried, and it was discovered that the voting ensemble classifier achieved the highest accuracy of 99.99%. Classifiers' accuracy, recall, and F1-Score were used to assess their performance and efficacy.

So What if They’re Lying to Us? Comparing Rhetorical Strategies for Discrediting Sources of Disinformation and Misinformation Using an Affect-Based Credibility Rating

Despite growing research on false information, a theoretical framework to organize findings is lacking. We use affect control theory to fill this need and introduce the affect-based credibility rating for interpreting the effectiveness of rhetorical strategies in discrediting the source of falsehoods. The rating quantifies the difference in connotations between the labels used to characterize the source and an ideal, credible source. Successful discrediting amplifies the difference. We use the rating to compare rhetorical strategies for discrediting opponents as sources during rival information campaigns about the Equal Rights Amendment. We show claiming the opponent is spreading disinformation rather than misinformation (stating the opponent is spreading falsehoods deliberately, rather than unwittingly) appears more effective at discrediting, particularly when disinformation claims allege more sinister motives for lying. The new rating helps organize findings by enabling direct comparisons between strategies, thereby contributing toward efforts to detect and discredit falsehoods in media.

How Does Electronic Word of Mouth Impact Green Hotel Booking Intention?

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of positive electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on green hotel booking intention using a comprehensive moderated-mediation framework. A total of 223 responses were collected through online survey. The results indicated that argument quality, source credibility, valence and consumer rating play a crucial part in consumers’ green hotel booking intention. The study contributes the eWOM, green marketing, and hospitality literature. The findings of this study will help the green hotel managers to know about the dynamic role that eWOM triggers, trust and consumers environmental concern play in green hotel booking intention.

Birds of a feather are persuaded together: Perceived source credibility mediates the effect of political bias on misinformation susceptibility

The viral spread of misinformation poses a threat to societies around the world. Recently, researchers have started to study how motivated reasoning about news content influences misinformation susceptibility. However, because the importance of source credibility in the persuasion process is well-documented, and given that source similarity contributes to credibility evaluations, this raises the question of whether individuals are more susceptible to misinformation from ideologically congruent news sources because they find them to be more credible. In a large between-subject pilot (N = 656) and a pre-registered online mixed-subject experiment with a US sample (N = 150) using simulated social media posts, we find clear evidence that both liberals and conservatives judge misinformation to be more accurate when the source is politically congruent, and that this effect is mediated by perceived source credibility. We show that source effects play a greater role in veracity judgements for liberals than conservatives, but that individuals from both sides of the spectrum judge politically congruent sources as less slanted and more credible. These findings add to our current understanding of source effects in online news environments and provide evidence for the influential effect of perceived source similarity and perceived credibility in misinformation susceptibility.

What to Believe? Impact of Knowledge and Message Length on Neural Activity in Message Credibility Evaluation

Understanding how humans evaluate credibility is an important scientific question in the era of fake news. Message credibility is among crucial aspects of credibility evaluations. One of the most direct ways to understand message credibility is to use measurements of brain activity of humans performing credibility evaluations. Nevertheless, message credibility has never been investigated using such a method before. This article reports the results of an experiment during which we have measured brain activity during message credibility evaluation, using EEG. The experiment allowed for identification of brain areas that were active when participant made positive or negative message credibility evaluations. Based on experimental data, we modeled and predicted human message credibility evaluations using EEG brain activity measurements with F1 score exceeding 0.7.

Negative news dominates fast and slow brain responses and social judgments even after source credibility evaluation

Remedies to counter the impact of misinformation are in high demand, but little is known about the neuro-cognitive consequences of untrustworthy information and how they can be mitigated. In this preregistered study, we investigated the effects of social-emotional headline contents on social judgments and brain responses and whether they can be modulated by explicit evaluations of the trustworthiness of the media source. Participants (N = 30) evaluated –and clearly discerned– the trustworthiness of news sources before they were exposed to person-related news headlines. Despite this intervention, social judgments and brain responses were dominated largely by emotional headline contents. Results suggest differential effects of source credibility might depend on headline valence. Electrophysiological indexes of fast emotional and arousal-related brain responses, as well as correlates of slow evaluative processing were enhanced for persons associated with positive headline contents from trusted sources, but not when positive headlines stemmed from distrusted sources. In contrast, negative headlines dominated fast and slow brain responses unaffected by explicit source credibility evaluations. These results provide novel insights into the brain mechanisms underlying the “success” of emotional news from untrustworthy sources, suggesting a pronounced susceptibility to negative information even from distrusted sources that is reduced for positive contents. The differential pattern of responses to misinformation in mind and brain sheds light on the cognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of misinformation and possible strategies to avoid their potentially detrimental effects.

팩트체크 뉴스가 매체 신뢰도에 미치는 영향

가짜 뉴스가 탈진실의 시대와 맞물려 민주주의를 교란시키고, 언론 신뢰 하락을 더욱 가속화시키고 있다. 이 같은 상황에서 크게는 민주주의를 지키고 작게는 무너진 언론의 신뢰를 재건하기 위해 최근 주목받고 있는 것이 바로 사실 검증 작업 곧 ‘팩트체크 뉴스’이다. 본 연구의 목적은 저널리즘의 새로운 형태인 이처럼 사실 여부를 알려주는 팩트체크 뉴스가 추락하는 언론 신뢰도를 회복시키고 위기의 언론을 다시 제자리로 돌릴 수 있을지 파악하는 것이다. 본 연구에서는 일반 뉴스와 구별되는 팩트체크 뉴스의 다양한 특징 가운데 2가지 특징, 즉 ‘판정 제시 방식’, 그리고 ‘판정의 명확성 여부’를 도출해 냈다. 그리고 이와 같은 두 가지 특징이 어떤 메커니즘을 통해 해당 매체의 신뢰도 회복에 영향을 미칠 수 있을지 실험을 통해 실증적으로 분석해 보았다. 분석 결과 수용자가 팩트체크 뉴스에 단지 노출되었다는 이유만으로 신뢰도가 증가하는 것은 아니었다. 매체 신뢰도 증가는 정치인의 주장을 검증한 팩트체크 뉴스의 경우 매개 효과를 통해 증가하는 것으로 나타났다. 즉, 시각적 방식만이 동의 정도를 매개로 매체 신뢰도에 유의미한 영향을 미쳤다. 또한, 보수 단체의 주장을 검증한 팩트체크 뉴스에서는 조절된 매개 효과를 통해서 매체 신뢰도가 증가했다. 비록 제한적인 상황에서만 매체 신뢰도가 상승했지만 이와 같은 결과는 팩트체크 뉴스가 신뢰도 하락이라는 저널리즘 위기 상황을 극복할 수 있는 구체적 방안이 될 수 있음 또한 보여주는 것이다.

The effect of user interface on treatment engagement in a self-guided digital problem-solving intervention: A randomized controlled trial

BackgroundResources are spent worldwide on the development of digital platforms and their user interfaces (UIs) for digital mental health services (DMHS). However, studies investigating the potential benefits of different UIs for DMHS are currently lacking. To fill this knowledge gap, the aim of this study was to investigate differences in treatment engagement between two different UIs for DMHS. MethodsA total of 397 participants from the Swedish general public were randomized (1:1) to use a self-guided digital problem-solving intervention during one week, either with an optimized UI (N = 198), based on user experience (UX) design principles and with automated features, or a basic UI (N = 199), analogous with a UI used in Swedish regular health care comprising elementary UI features and less automation. Primary outcome measures were self-rated usability, on the System Usability Scale, and treatment credibility, on the Credibility/Expectancy Questionnaire. Secondary outcome measures included behavioral engagement with the intervention. FindingsThere were no significant differences between the UIs in ratings of usability or treatment credibility. However, participants who used the optimized UI were significantly more engaged with the intervention as measured by usage of the intervention at least once (odds ratio 2.54, 95% CI [1.67, 3.85]), total number of generated solutions (mean difference 1.41, 95% CI [0.72, 2.11]), and mean number of generated solutions per initiated problem-solving attempt (mean difference 1.45, 95% CI [1.06, 1.85]). Other findings included participants using the optimized UI rating the intervention as easier to understand, while feeling more overwhelmed, than those using the basic UI. InterpretationOur findings indicate that an optimized UI based on UX design principles, in comparison to a basic UI comprising elementary UI features, do not affect overall self-rated usability or treatment credibility but increases some measures of behavioral engagement with a digital intervention. FundingFunded by the Government of Sweden, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs.

Social Credibility: Trust Formation in Social Commerce

Trust formation in informal social commerce, also considered lateral exchange markets (LEMs) on social media platforms, has different dynamics from e-commerce and traditional consumer-to-consumer (C2C) exchange. These online markets are massive in scale; thus, it is an important phenomenon in consumer research. With a holistic perspective, we conducted in-depth interviews with Instagram consumers and sellers. Our research is among the first to reveal an empirical understanding of the critical dynamics of trust formation in LEMs within social commerce and contribute to theory by introducing a novel dimension termed social credibility. Social credibility surpasses the source credibility evaluations one step further from assessing the source itself to assess the credibility of the individuals who contribute to the source’s reputation, such as reviewers, followers, and customers. Thus, we define social credibility as customers’ assessments of LEM sellers’ credibility through perceived homophily with other reviewers, followers, and customers.