Credibility

About: Credibility is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 13730 publications have been published within this topic receiving 331944 citations. The topic is also known as: believability & plausibility.

Meta-research: The art of getting it wrong.

Abstract: Meta-analysis has major strengths, but sometimes it can often lead to wrong and misleading answers. In this SRSM presidential address, I discuss some case studies that exemplify these problems, including examples from meta-analyses of both clinical trials and observational associations. I also discuss issues of effect size estimation, bias (in particular significance-chasing biases), and credibility in meta-research. I examine the factors that affect the credibility of meta-analyses, including magnitude of effects, multiplicity of analyses, scale of data, flexibility of analyses, reporting, and conflicts of interest. Under the current circumstances, a survey of expert meta-analysts attending the SRSM meeting showed that most of them believe that the true effect is practically equally likely to lie within the 95% confidence interval of a meta-analysis or outside of it. Finally, I address the placement of meta-analysis in the wider current research agenda and make a plea for adoption of more prospective meta-designs. In many/most/all fields, all primary original research may be designed, executed, and interpreted as a prospective meta-analysis. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Empirical Test of an Updated Relevance-Accessibility Model of Advertising Effectiveness.

Abstract: The Relevance-Accessibility Model provides a framework for studying advertising effects on brand choice. To do this, it shifts the focus of study from the time of advertising exposure to the time of brand choice. The model is motivationally based. Consumers' motivation to deliberate at the time of brand choice influences consumers' preferred choice process. Three choice processes; optimizing, satisficing and indifference, are associated with the preferred use of three different types of information: evidence of performance superiority, evidence of credibility and evidence of liking, respectively. The model predicts that an advertising message appeal is most likely to influence brand choice when it is both relevant and accessible. The message appeal that can most easily achieve the choice objective is the most relevant appeal. A message appeal is most likely to be accessible when consumer involvement at the time of advertising exposure leads to its efficient encoding in memory. The major contribut...

Points of View: Combining Local and Scientific Knowledge

Abstract: A change in attitude is urgently required to provide credibility to, and to devise methods for, combining and utilizing non-scientific information (local knowledge) together with more typical scientific data. In the midst of vast uncertainty about fish stocks, the climate is right for this change in attitude. Expert systems offer one tool to combine different sources of information in a meaningful way. We believe that through the simple communication required to gather knowledge for an expert system, the development of mutual respect will foster cooperation and responsibility of resource users, scientists and managers, thus providing the basis for improved and more responsible management.

Persuasion by Cheap Talk

Abstract: We consider the credibility, persuasiveness, and informativ eness of multidimensional cheap talk by an expert to a decision maker. We find that an expert with state-independent preferences can always make credible comparative statements that trade off the expert's incentive to exaggerate on each dimension. Such communication benefits the expert - cheap talk is "persuasive" - if her preferences are quasiconvex. Communication benefits a decision maker by allowing for a more informed decision, but strategic interactions between multiple decision makers can reverse this gain. We apply these results to topics including product recommendations, voting, auction disclosure, and advertising. (JEL D44, D72, D82, D83, M37)

Readers’ perception of computer-generated news: Credibility, expertise, and readability

Abstract: We conducted an online experiment to study people’s perception of automated computer-written news. Using a 2 × 2 × 2 design, we varied the article topic (sports, finance; within-subjects) and both ...