How heuristic credibility cues affect credibility judgments and decisions.

Abstract

We investigated how heuristic credibility cues affected credibility judgments and decisions. Participants saw advice in comments in a simulated online health forum. Each comment was accompanied by credibility cues, including author expertise and peer reputation ratings (by forum members) of comments and authors. In Experiment 1, participants’ credibility judgments of comments and authors increased with expertise and increased with the number of reputation ratings for supportive ratings and decreased with number of ratings for disconfirmatory ratings. Also, results suggested that the diagnosticity (informativeness) of credibility cues influenced credibility judgments. Using the same credibility cues and task context, Experiment 2 found that when high-utility choices had low credibility, participants often chose alternatives with lower utility but higher credibility. They did this more often when less utility had to be sacrificed and when more credibility was gained. The influence of credibility and utility information on participants’ choices was mediated by their explicit credibility judgments. These findings supported the predictions of a Bayesian belief-updating model and an elaboration of Prospect Theory (Budescu, Kuhn, Kramer, & Johnson, 2002). This research provides novel insights into how cues including valence and relevance influence credibility judgments and how utility and credibility trade off during decision making.

Why some psychotherapists benefit from feedback on treatment progress more than others: A belief updating perspective.

“…There are two ways to determine the veracity of the new information: the perceived credibility of the source and direct evaluation via first-hand evidence, that is, testing the advice against observation. Beliefs are interpreted in light of the perceived credibility of the source in form of credibility-led biased interpretations of evidence (whether belief or suspicion confirming) that lead to further polarization of the perceived credibility highlighting the crucial role of credibility in belief updating (Pilditch et al, 2020), while cues including valence and relevance influence these credibility judgments suggesting a utility-credibility-trade off during decision making (Gugerty & Link, 2020). Therefore, creating a more nuanced credibility picture of the feedback system (i.e., strengths and weaknesses) and the information provided (e.g., by providing also confidence intervals of a given score) might also be a promising target.…”

“I see dead people”: Exploring the associations between watching horror and belief in the paranormal.

“…This mechanism relates back to the previously mentioned heuristic processing of information (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973). Much of the research on credibility heuristics stems from the persuasion and misinformation literature (e.g., Corina, 2010; Gugerty & Link, 2020), with the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion (Cacioppo et al, 1985) one of the most cited models for understanding why source cues can influence how individuals are persuaded by media messages or persuasive arguments. In particular, the ELM argues a dual process model of message processing, whereby messages and arguments can either be systematically and effortfully evaluated (the central route), or quickly and without much thought (the peripheral route).…”

How childhood maltreatment alters perception and cognition – the predictive processing account of borderline personality disorder

“…testing the advice against observation. Beliefs are interpreted in light of the perceived credibility of the source in form of credibility-led biased interpretations of evidence (whether belief or suspicion confirming) that lead to further polarization of the perceived credibility highlighting the crucial role of credibility in belief updating (Pilditch, Madsen, & Custers, 2020 ), while cues including valence and relevance influence these credibility judgments suggesting a utility and credibility trade off during decision making (Gugerty & Link, 2020 ). Therefore, creating a more nuanced credibility picture in BPD patients might also be promising treatment target.…”