credibility
Credibility is a measure of the readiness of the addressee to accept another person's statement as valid. Only then is the person and their actions believed . Credibility is an attributional quality that is ascribed to others. Above all, law , psychology , political science and communication science have devoted themselves to the topic in recent decades. Credibility is of central importance for the effectiveness of motives for action and therefore plays an important role in public relations , market research and opinion polls ( public relations ) .
English expressions are credibility or belief . If the desired image and the reception (the external image ) do not coincide with the target group , one speaks of a credibility gap (credibility gap) or unreliability.
Formulation of credibility in various specialist areas
rhetoric
In public speech ( rhetoric ) , Aristotle already considered the credibility of a speaker and his character as a form of evidence . Aristotle assigned them to the ethos , moral integrity , of a person, in contrast to logos (intellectual correctness) and pathos (emotional persuasiveness).
Game theory
Only recently have attempts been made to place credibility as such in a context of measurability (operationalization) . Important basics are developed here by game theory , which tries to check and quantify the credibility of the opponent in the game result through game attempts . In the game theory sense, credibility means that the opponent is convinced that the announcements will actually occur. One of the key takeaways is that "credibility must be earned".
Social science
Current social science has generally found different dimensions of credibility. Berlo and Lemert name three:
Legal term
Credibility as a legal term describes the trustworthiness of a witness in the context of the judicial assessment of a witness testimony in the context of a judicial process. This contrasts with the credibility of the testimony of the witness himself, that is, the degree of his ability to inspire or maintain confidence in its correctness. The truthfulness of the testimony can only be determined by both together.
Market and opinion research
The credibility of a product , a brand , a party program or campaign , or of the people or institutions they represent, is a central factor in market and opinion research in politics , economics and other applied social sciences .
There are numerous data sets within the framework of which the credibility is also ascertained . An example is the landmark Rochester study ( Politz 1960) of newspaper advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post :
- Brand awareness (brand familiarity) (Question: "When you think about ... what brand or brands you drop a first?")
- Awareness of the statement (claim familiarity) (question: "Irrespective of whether you believe in it or not, which statements about ... are you familiar with?")
- Credibility of the statement (belief in claim) (question: "What are the advantages of ...?")
Today we summarize around three basic factors: credibility, awareness and acceptance .
- See also: brand trust
Press and internet
A wide variety of information is available to people through the press and the Internet . Since this information is usually not filtered by relevant experts, but by inadequately qualified journalists, social networks and personalized search engines, filter bubbles arise which massively amplify confirmation errors. Depending on which opinion one takes, sources can also be found that seem to confirm this opinion.
Because of this amplification of confirmation errors, it is particularly important to be able to assess the credibility of information sources. However, there is no generally valid method for this, only a large number of indicators.
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criticism
The use of the term “credibility” by the media as a criterion for assessing politics and politicians has increased at an inflationary rate in recent years. Using Richard von Weizsäcker as an example, Roger Willemsen criticized this catchphrase early on:
“[...] one can only sell 'credibility' as a politically relevant category on a state-loyal basis. After all, what is there to believe in a politician? Either that means that we are in a good position with him abroad, they do not take us for who we are, then his credibility is that successful deception that we obviously depend on. Or it is said that he was not caught lying in public for a long time, and that is only because Weizsäcker has not yet taken the trouble to compare all his speeches and take them seriously. As strange as it is: if a politician were really shaken by something and wanted to change something quickly and radically, one would inevitably say: he is not suitable for his office. In this respect, a politician is by definition anything but credible. He says he is grieving but he is not grieving, he says he is concerned but he is not concerned. He must never be taken at his word for he speaks fiction, and more than anyone else, the President is the product of his own fiction ... "
See also
literature
- Friedrich Arntzen: Psychology of the testimony. System of credibility features. Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-7910-1239-1 .
- Günter Bentele: The credibility factor. In: Journalism. 33/1988, p. 406 ff.
- Kevin Riemer: Credibility of NGOs. Academic Publishing Association Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-86924-624-6 .
- Dzeyk, Waldemar: Trust in Internet Offers . An empirical study on the influence of credibility indicators in the use of online therapy and online counseling services. Dissertation. University of Cologne, 2005 ( xpersite.de ).
- Carl I. Hovland, Walter Weiss: The Influence of Source Credibility on Communication Effectiveness. In: Public Opinion Quartely. 15/1951, pp. 635-650.
- Alexander Kirchner: The linguistic dimension of the political. Studies on rhetoric and credibility, Würzburg 2000.
- Günter Köhnken: Credibility. Investigations into a psychological construct. Munich 1990.
- Lothar Laux, Astrid Schütz: "We who are good". The self-portrayal of politicians between glorifying credibility. Munich 1996.
- Ute Nawratil: Credibility in Social Communication. Opladen / Wiesbaden 1997.
- Patrick Rössler, Werner Wirth (ed.): Credibility on the Internet. Questions, models, empirical findings, Munich 1999.
Individual evidence
- ^ Avinash K. Dixit , Barry J. Nalebuff: Game Theory for Beginners - Strategic Know-how for Winners . Schäffer-Poeschel, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 978-3-7910-1239-1 , pp. 140 .
- ↑ David K. Berlo, James B. Lemert: A Factor Analytic Study of the Dimensions of Source Credibility . Paper presented at the 1961 convention of the SAA. New York.
- ^ Alfred Politz : The Rochester Study. A study from 1959. Hamburg (English: The Rochester Study. Alfred Politz Media Studies (Saturday Evening Post) . 1960. Translated by Hörzu-Service, undated [1960]). Quoted from the Rochester study. In: Medialexikon. Focus medialine.de, archived from the original on February 11, 2013 ; Retrieved September 5, 2009 .
- ↑ Roger Willemsen : “For yours is the kingdom. Richard von Weizsäcker ”. In: “Together we are unbearable. Reunification and its consequences ”, Edition Tiamat, Berlin 1990, p. 15/16.