source trustworthiness
Definition
Source trustworthiness refers to individuals' perceptions of a source being honest, and it is treated in the literature as one constituent dimension of the broader construct of source credibility, alongside perceived expertise and perceived bias. A source can be simultaneously perceived as trustworthy and biased, for instance when it honestly communicates a skewed perspective, which means the dimensions are related but carry separate effects. Misinformation research has been criticised for neglecting source trustworthiness as a distinct dimension, conflating it with expertise or bias in ways that may account for inconsistent findings across studies.
Sources: Mang et al. (2024)
Related Terms
- misinformation (1 shared article)
- persuasion (1 shared article)
- source credibility (1 shared article)
- source expertise (1 shared article)
- source bias (1 shared article)
Applications
Source Trustworthiness and Source Credibility
Source credibility is conceptualised as comprising perceptions of expertise, trustworthiness, and bias, with trustworthiness specifically reflecting whether a source is perceived as honest rather than knowledgeable or self-interested. Persuasion research has developed approaches that disentangle these dimensions and document their separate effects, whereas misinformation research has frequently failed to isolate trustworthiness from other credibility components, a gap identified as a likely contributor to discrepant findings in that literature.
Sources: Mang et al. (2024)
Source Trustworthiness and Misinformation Susceptibility
In misinformation contexts, source credibility, including its trustworthiness dimension, has been examined in relation to outcomes such as perceived accuracy of false information and intentions to share it online. Source credibility effects on cognitive outcomes like perceived accuracy are more consistent than those on behavioural outcomes, and the failure to treat trustworthiness as a distinct dimension rather than a component of an undifferentiated credibility composite may partly explain why effects in misinformation studies remain unstable.
Sources: Mang et al. (2024)
