Identity On Social Networks As A Cue: Identity, Retweets, And Credibility

Keywords

Agency Cues; Risk Communication; Social Media; Source Credibility; Warranting Theory

Abstract

The current study investigates how social media affordances influence individuals’ source credibility perceptions in the presence of risk information, specifically examining how bandwagon heuristics interact with different identity heuristics at the individual level. The MAIN model and warranting theory serve as the theoretical framework to examine the effects of bandwagon cues and identity cues embedded in retweets and users’ profile pages for health and risk online information processing. A posttest-only experiment with a self-report questionnaire was administered to participants. Results indicate that different online heuristic cues impact the judgments of competence, goodwill, and trustworthiness. Authority cues strongly influenced source credibility perceptions. A reverse-bandwagon effect was observed in influencing source credibility judgments.

Publication Date

10-20-2018

Publication Title

Communication Studies

Volume

69

Issue

5

Number of Pages

461-482

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2018.1489295

Socpus ID

85049614550 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85049614550

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