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.

Transparency of Public Decision-Making: Towards Trust in Local Government?

Abstract: Online minutes of local councils offer the opportunity to look behind the scenes of local government decision-making. Will this transparency, as promised, lead to higher levels of trust? This issue was investigated by conducting an experiment comparing participants who did not access the available information, people who were only allowed restricted information about the minutes, and those who were shown the full minutes of the local council. Results indicated that people exposed to more information were significantly more negative regarding perceived competence of the council compared to those who did not access the available information. Additionally, participants who received only restricted information about the minutes thought the council was less honest compared to those who did not read them. The relationship between transparency and trust is influenced partly by the perceived credibility of the message on the website. Also, knowledge about the decision-making process appears to shift judgment criteria. People well informed about the process are inclined to base their judgment of perceived competence on this knowledge and less on message credibility. A theoretical explanation for the negative effect of transparency of public decision-making is sought in the expectations of the public versus the reality. A lower perceived competence by those who had access to full information might be explained by a gap between public expectations of rational decision-making and the reality of the chaos involved in public decision-making exposed through transparency.

Credible commitments, contract enforcement problems and banks: Intermediation as credibility assurance

Abstract: We consider contract enforceability problems in credit transactions and justify a bank as an organizational solution to market breakdown due to unenforceable contracts. Specifically, we explain: (i) why loan commitments exist, and (ii) why banks exist to sell such commitments. A loan commitment resolves moral hazard more efficiently than any combination of inside equity and spot credit. However, the market breaks down if commitment sellers are individuals, because their promises to honor contracts are not credible. With a large bank, a perfect sequential equilibrium is obtained in which credibility is restored.

Leveraging Emotional Signals for Credibility Detection

Abstract: The spread of false information on the Web is one of the main problems of our society. Automatic detection of fake news posts is a hard task since they are intentionally written to mislead the readers and to trigger intense emotions to them in an attempt to be disseminated in the social networks. Even though recent studies have explored different linguistic patterns of false claims, the role of emotional signals has not yet been explored. In this paper, we study the role of emotional signals in fake news detection. In particular, we propose an LSTM model that incorporates emotional signals extracted from the text of the claims to differentiate between credible and non-credible ones. Experiments on real world datasets show the importance of emotional signals for credibility assessment.

The necessary art of persuasion

Abstract: Business today is largely run by teams and populated by authority-averse baby boomers and Generation Xers. That makes persuasion more important than ever as a managerial tool. But contrary to popular belief, the author asserts, persuasion is not the same as selling an idea or convincing opponents to see things your way. It is instead a process of learning from others and negotiating a shared solution. To that end, persuasion consists of four essential elements: establishing credibility, framing to find common ground, providing vivid evidence, and connecting emotionally. Credibility grows, the author says, out of two sources: expertise and relationships. The former is a function of product or process knowledge and the latter a history of listening to and working in the best interest of others. But even if a persuader's credibility is high, his position must make sense--even more, it must appeal--to the audience. Therefore, a persuader must frame his position to illuminate its benefits to everyone who will feel its impact. Persuasion then becomes a matter of presenting evidence--but not just ordinary charts and spreadsheets. The author says the most effective persuaders use vivid--even over-the-top--stories, metaphors, and examples to make their positions come alive. Finally, good persuaders have the ability to accurately sense and respond to their audience's emotional state. Sometimes, that means they have to suppress their own emotions; at other times, they must intensify them. Persuasion can be a force for enormous good in an organization, but people must understand it for what it is: an often painstaking process that requires insight, planning, and compromise.