The DOI matches its Crossref record; 138 of the 139 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Persuasiveness of Source Credibility: A Critical Review of Five Decades' Evidence
Abstract
This paper reviews the empirical evidence of the effect of credibility of the message source on persuasion over a span of 5 decades, primarily to come up with recommendations for practitioners as to when to use a high‐ or a low‐credibility source and secondarily to identify areas for future research. The main effect studies of source credibility on persuasion seem to indicate the superiority of a high‐credibility source over a low‐credibility one. Interaction effect studies, however, show source credibility to be a liability under certain conditions. The variables found to interact with source credibility are categorized into 5 categories: source, message, channel, receiver, and destination variables. The most heavily researched variables have been the message and receiver variables. Implications for marketers/advertisers and suggestions for future research are discussed.
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In the citing paper
“based on a well-established body of literature in persuasion demonstrating that aspects of a message’s source can influence the persuasiveness of the message (Briñol & Petty, 2009; Kumkale et al., 2010; Pornpitakpan, 2004; Wilson & Sherrell, 1993), the source of a fear appeal communication should be an important moderator for fear appeal effectiveness.”
From Appealing to fear: A meta-analysis of fear appeal effectiveness and theories (2015) · cites this paper as Pornpitakpan, 2004
In the citing paper
“The credibility of information that propagates in a social network is a critical factor that can shape the beliefs: if incoming information from a person's social network carries no credibility, then it is less likely to be incorporated in to the belief of the person (Pornpitakpan, 2004;Heesacker et al., 1983).”
From Credibility of climate change denial in social media (2019) · cites this paper as Pornpitakpan, 2004
In the citing paper
“Among various information about climate change to which people are exposed to, they are more likely to be influenced by information that have higher credibility.”
From Credibility of climate change denial in social media (2019) · cites this paper as Pornpitakpan, 2004
Citations
Cites
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Webb, T. L., & Sheeran, P. (2006) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.2.249 · Cited by 3,732
“Evidence supports the idea that source expertise enhances the impact of interventions on behavior (e.g., Hovland & Weiss, 1952; Pornpitakpan, 2004).”
BackgroundLou, C., & Yuan, S. (2019) · Journal of Interactive Advertising · doi:10.1080/15252019.2018.1533501 · Cited by 2,795
“A large body of literature has already demonstrated the effects of source credibility on persuasion (for a review, see Pornpitakpan 2004).”
BackgroundDe Veirman, M., Cauberghe, V., & Hudders, L. (2017) · International Journal of Advertising · doi:10.1080/02650487.2017.1348035 · Cited by 2,548
“Source credibility is driven by perceived expertise and trustworthiness of the communicator and influences consumers’ attitudes (see Pornpitakpan 2004 for a review).”
Chris Forman, A., Ghose, A., & Wiesenfeld, B. M. (2008) · Information Systems Research · doi:10.1287/isre.1080.0193 · Cited by 1,698
“Indeed, the information processing literature has repeatedly demonstrated that attributes of a message source often exert direct effects on message recipients’ attitudes and behaviors, independent of the message content (e.g., Chaiken and Maheshwaran 1994, Petty et al. 1998, Simpson et al. 2000, Cohen 2003, Menon and…”
BackgroundInfluentialPennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2021) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2021.02.007 · Cited by 1,360
“Participants are more likely to believe information provided by people whom they view as being credible (reviewed in [55]), and a large literature from political science has robustly demonstrated the impact of elite messaging, in particular, on public opinion [56].”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Pornpitakpan, C.
- Affiliations
- Monash University Malaysia (MY)
- Corresponding author
- Pornpitakpan, Chanthika
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Social Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2004-02
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 243-281
- ISSN
- 0021-9029 (ISSN-L)
- 1559-1816
- OpenAlex
- W2157392583
- Cited by
- 2,205
- References
- 139
- Citations by year
- 2026: 180 · 2025: 183 · 2024: 173 · 2023: 184 · 2022: 185 · 2021: 173 · 2020: 187 · 2019: 135 · 2018: 99 · 2017: 119 · 2016: 90 · 2015: 88 · 2014: 84 · 2013: 84 · 2012: 50
- FWCI
- 69.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychology of Social Influence
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Marketing and Advertising Strategies
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Marketing › Digital Marketing and Social Media
- Keywords
- source credibility, persuasion, interaction effects, message characteristics, receiver characteristics, communication channels, advertising, marketing communication
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