This thesis investigates the effect of communication format on the understanding of uncertainty communications and considers the implications of these findings for a communicator’s perceived ...credibility. The research compares five formats: verbal probability expressions (VPEs; e.g., ‘unlikely’); numerical expressions – point (e.g., ‘20% likelihood’) and range estimates (e.g., ‘10–30% likelihood’); and mixed expressions in two orders (verbal-numerical, e.g., ‘unlikely 20% likelihood’ and numerical-verbal format, e.g., ‘20% likelihood unlikely’). Using the ‘which-outcome’ methodology, we observe that when participants are asked to estimate the probability of the outcome of a natural hazard that is described as ‘unlikely’, the majority indicate outcomes with a value exceeding the maximum value shown, equivalent to a 0% probability. Extending this work to numerical and mixed formats, we find that 0% interpretations are also given to communications using a verbal-numerical format (Chapter 2). If ‘unlikely’ is interpreted as referring to events which will never occur, there could be implications for a communicator’s perceived credibility should an ‘unlikely’ event actually occur. In the low probability domain, we find a communicator who uses a verbal format in their prediction is perceived as less credible and less correct than one who uses a numerical format. However, in the high probability domain (where a ‘likely’ event does not occur) such an effect of format is not consistently observed (Chapter 3). We suggest ‘directionality–outcome congruence’ can explain these findings. For example, the negatively directional term ‘unlikely’ led to harsher ratings because the outcome was counter to the original focus of the prediction (i.e., on its non-occurrence). Comparing communications featuring positively and negatively directional VPEs, we find that communicators are perceived as less credible and less correct given directionality–outcome incongruence (Chapter 4). Our findings demonstrate the influence of pragmatics on (a) the understanding of uncertainty communications and (b) perceived communicator credibility.
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effects of three green information quality dimensions – persuasiveness, completeness and credibility – on green brand evaluation and whether this is mediated by ...green brand credibility. It also examines the moderating effects of eco-label credibility and consumer knowledge on green information quality dimensions and green brand credibility relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a structured questionnaire on environmentally-friendly electrical goods/electronics, cosmetic and apparel product advertisements, involving an elaboration task, this study collected usable data from 1,282 Indian consumers across 50 cities. It also undertook an assessment for three different product groups using structural equation modelling to examine proposed hypotheses and assessed moderated mediation using the Hays process model.
Findings
The study indicates that: green brand credibility mediates the effects of green information quality dimensions on green brand evaluation; consumer knowledge moderates the effects of persuasiveness and completeness on green brand credibility and eco-label credibility moderates the effects of persuasiveness and credibility on green brand credibility.
Research limitations/implications
In green information processing, this study supports the relevance of the elaboration likelihood model and the mediation effect of green brand credibility. It also presents evidence that credible eco-labels enhance green information processing. While the results are broadly consistent across the three product categories, the results may only generalizable to the environmentally-aware urban populations.
Practical implications
Help brand managers to design advertisements that add brand credibility in environmentally-aware urban markets.
Originality/value
It helps to define green information quality and the interacting effects of eco-label credibility and consumer knowledge in green information processing.
Previous research related to online donations has not addressed the importance of the credibility of the three main components of online donation: campaigns, websites, and donation organizations ...through a credibility transfer mechanism. This model can later determine the factors that influence a person's desire to donate online based on the credibility of campaigns, websites, and organizations. Each of these factors is then attached to the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) theory, which explains the process of someone elaborating a message through a central route or a peripheral route. Respondents who can fill out this questionnaire are the general public who have read at least one description of the donation campaign on the Kitabisa website. The questionnaire results were processed using PLS-SEM statistical analysis with SmartPLS software version 3.2.6 based on questionnaire data from 503 respondents. PLS-SEM is generally used to develop theory in exploratory research by explaining the variance of the dependent variables when evaluating the model. The analysis results found that online donation intention was directly influenced by campaign credibility. In addition, there are two credibility transfer processes found in this study, namely, between website credibility and campaign credibility and between organizational credibility and website credibility.
Purpose
This paper aims to use signalling theory to examine the concept of advertising credibility and its effects on brand credibility, brand image, corporate credibility and corporate image.
...Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative approach was used. Ten interviews and four focus groups were conducted among participants drawn from the London area. The data was analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings
The findings suggest that advertising credibility is defined using terms like accurate, caring, competent, complete, convincing, ethical, honest, impressive, promising, reliable and warranted. The findings also suggest that advertising credibility has a positive effect on brand credibility, brand image, corporate credibility and corporate image. However, these effects are lower when the brand and corporation have different names than when they have similar names. The dissimilarity of names can also provide some benefit, especially when brands or firms are faced with a crisis. The findings also illustrate that the theoretical model used in this study is valid, and suggest that advertising credibility has positive effects on other constructs.
Originality/value
Advertising credibility has received little attention in the literature. There is also little attention on its effects on other credibility constructs. This study minimises these gaps by conducting qualitative research to explore the effects of advertising credibility on brand credibility, corporate credibility and corporate image.
This article focuses on message credibility and detection accuracy of fake and real news as represented on social media. We developed a deception detection paradigm for news headlines and conducted ...two online experiments to examine the extent to which people (1) perceive news headlines as credible, and (2) accurately distinguish fake and real news across three general topics (i.e., politics, science, and health). Both studies revealed that people often judged news headlines as fake, suggesting a deception-bias for news in social media. Across studies, we observed an average detection accuracy of approximately 51%, a level consistent with most research using this deception detection paradigm with equal lie-truth base-rates. Study 2 evaluated the effects of endorsement cues in social media (e.g., Facebook likes) on message credibility and detection accuracy. Results showed that headlines associated with a high number of Facebook likes increased credibility, thereby enhancing detection accuracy for real news but undermining accuracy for fake news. These studies introduce truth-default theory to the context of news credibility and advance our understanding of how biased processing of news information can impact detection accuracy with social media endorsement cues.
This paper describes the research process – from planning to presentation, with the emphasis on credibility throughout the whole process – when the methodology of qualitative content analysis is ...chosen in a qualitative study. The groundwork for the credibility initiates when the planning of the study begins. External and internal resources have to be identified, and the researcher must consider his or her experience of the phenomenon to be studied in order to minimize any bias of his/her own influence. The purpose of content analysis is to organize and elicit meaning from the data collected and to draw realistic conclusions from it. The researcher must choose whether the analysis should be of a broad surface structure (a manifest analysis) or of a deep structure (a latent analysis). Four distinct main stages are described in this paper: the decontextualisation, the recontextualisation, the categorization, and the compilation. This description of qualitative content analysis offers one approach that shows how the general principles of the method can be used.
Psychological science’s “credibility revolution” has produced an explosion of metascientific work on improving research practices. Although much attention has been paid to replicability (reducing ...false positives), improving credibility depends on addressing a wide range of problems afflicting psychological science, beyond simply making psychology research more replicable. Here we focus on the “four validities” and highlight recent developments—many of which have been led by early-career researchers—aimed at improving these four validities in psychology research. We propose that the credibility revolution in psychology, which has its roots in replicability, can be harnessed to improve psychology’s validity more broadly.
Celebrity credibility constitutes a significant portion of the celebrity brand endorsement literature. While this field of research is mature with a rich history of 45 years, it lacks a bibliometric ...analysis that traces its evolution. We address this gap by conducting a structured and bibliometric review of the literature. Through this hybrid review, we highlight the most cited articles, authors, journals, theories, methodologies, and sub-research themes in this body of knowledge. Our findings demonstrate that this research area is inter-disciplinary and significantly influences research within and beyond the business context. We identify a shift in credibility literature towards the digital media context. Further, this review indicates that a comprehensive sub-discipline of celebrity endorsement underlies the evolved literature of brand communication. Finally, we present an antecedent-consequence framework of source credibility. We conclude with theoretical contributions, managerial implications, and future research propositions using the Theory, Method, and Context (TMC) framework.
Online reviews are of great importance in supporting the purchasing decision making of online consumers. With the prospering of e-commerce, increasingly fraudulent reviews are appearing on e-commerce ...platforms to mislead consumers, and an increasing number of consumers are worrying about being deceived in online shopping. However, little research effort has been invested in studying the impact of review credibility perception caused by online review fraud on product sales. To fill this research gap, this paper conducts empirical research on the moderating effect of consumers' credibility perception of online reviews. Here, review credibility perception, or consumers' credibility perception of online reviews, refers to the credibility or trust that consumers have in the reviews they are reading. Building on dual-process theory, this paper develops two hypotheses to understand why and how review credibility perception influence consumer decision-making behaviors. The empirical studies in this paper demonstrate that consumers' credibility perception of online reviews moderate the effect of review sentiment on product sales. This work also found that consumers' credibility perception of online reviews have a heterogeneous effect on product sales. The effect shifts the relationship between review sentiment and product sales from an inverted U-shape relationship to a monotonous positive relationship with the improvement of consumers’ credibility perception of online reviews. This study has great managerial implications for platforms and vendors to improve online review management.
•Effect of fraudulent reviews on product sales is explored.•How review fraud influences consumers' decision making is interpreted.•Moderating effect of review credibility perception is verified.•Review credibility perception has a heterogeneous effect on product sales.
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