Source credibility effects in misinformation research: A review and primer

Abstract

Understanding the role that perceived source credibility plays in individuals’ responses to misinformation could help in shedding light on the effects of misinformation exposure and aid in making interventions aimed at tackling its negative consequences more effective. Yet, while persuasion research shows that perceived source credibility consistently predicts attitude change upon exposure to persuasive messages, research examining effects of source credibility in misinformation contexts has yielded inconsistent findings. We conducted a systematic review of misinformation research investigating source credibility effects (NStudies = 91, NParticipants = 64,162) and coded various characteristics of individual reported effects (NEffects = 162) to provide a narrative synthesis of the literature and identify potential causes of inconsistent findings. Our synthesis suggests that conceptual factors, such as the conceptualisation of source credibility and its constituent dimensions, underexplored moderators, and methodological factors, such as the operationalisation of source credibility and the relevance of stimulus materials, could explain discrepancies in source credibility effects in misinformation contexts. We provide recommendations for how to conceptualise and operationalise source credibility in a more systematic way and recommend promising avenues for future research that could aid the development of much-needed theoretical frameworks of source credibility effects in misinformation contexts.