This experimental study examined the source-message congruence effect on source credibility by manipulating the congruence of the reviewer’s profile information (travel interest, geographical location) with no changes in the review content. the congruence effect was found to influence perceptions of the reviewer’s expertise in a travel interest. This finding suggests that revealing the reviewer’s travel interest can assist the credibility assessment of travel reviewers-particularly in terms of expertise-within the category of a travel interest. the refined classification of travel reviewers based on their travel interests can improve their usefulness as information sources for prospective travelers’ information searches. These attributes can further be employed as search cues if embedded in the reviewer’s profile.

Tanning bed use, especially among young, white females, has become a serious health problem in the United States. Those who use tanning beds value a tanned appearance; thus, one possible way to get individuals to stop using tanning beds is to persuade them to begin using an alternative method: a sunless tanner. This study sought to use persuasive messages to encourage individuals to both stop using tanning beds and start using a sunless tanner. Deviance Regulation Theory (DRT) was used to design three messages, and source expertise was manipulated (high and low). In addition, attitudes, perceived norms, benefits and threats about tanning were examined. Results indicate that the combination of DRT message design and source expertise produced several message conditions that were effective at decreasing tanning bed use intent. No combined message condition was effective at changing sunless tanner use intent. DRT message design alone did not produce results, nor did source expertise. Tanning attitudes were influenced by reference groups, and perceived norms about tanning predicted individual‘s tanning bed use for several reference groups. In addition, there was an interaction between benefits and threats of tanning.

Tanning bed use, especially among young, white females, has become a serious health problem in the United States. Those who use tanning beds value a tanned appearance; thus, one possible way to get individuals to stop using tanning beds is to persuade them to begin using an alternative method: a sunless tanner. This study sought to use persuasive messages to encourage individuals to both stop using tanning beds and start using a sunless tanner. Deviance Regulation Theory (DRT) was used to design three messages, and source expertise was manipulated (high and low). In addition, attitudes, perceived norms, benefits and threats about tanning were examined. Results indicate that the combination of DRT message design and source expertise produced several message conditions that were effective at decreasing tanning bed use intent. No combined message condition was effective at changing sunless tanner use intent. DRT message design alone did not produce results, nor did source expertise. Tanning attitudes were influenced by reference groups, and perceived norms about tanning predicted individual‘s tanning bed use for several reference groups. In addition, there was an interaction between benefits and threats of tanning.

Research shows that people have difficulty forgetting inferences they make after reading a passage, even when the information that the inferences are based on is later known to be untrue. This dissertation examined the effects of these inferences on memory for political information and tested if the credibility of the source of the correction influences whether people use the correction, or continue relying on the original information when making inferences. According to source credibility theory, there are two main factors that contribute to credibility, expertise and trustworthiness. Experiment 1 examined credibility as a function of both expertise and trustworthiness. The results from this experiment showed that having a correction from a source who is high on both factors significantly decreased the use of the original information. Experiment 2 examined credibility as a function of expertise. The Experiment 2 results showed no significant decrease in participants' use of the original information, if a correction came from a source that was simply more expert (but not more trustworthy) than another source. This finding suggests that source expertise alone is not sufficient to reduce reliance on the original information. Experiment 3, which examined credibility as a function of trustworthiness, demonstrated that having a highly trustworthy source does significantly decrease the use of the original information when making inferences. This study is the first to provide direct support for the hypothesis that making the source of a correction more believable decreases use of the original discredited information when making inferences.

Influencers on social media is a new phenomenon that has gained popularity in recent years. Despite the increasing popularity of influencer marketing on Instagram, research has been limited. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the credibility of Instagram influencers from the perspective of followers, and see whether the dimensions of source credibility outlined by Ohanian (1990) has a positive impact on users to follow influencers on this platform. The research first presents and compares the research and theories to date regarding the use of celebrities in advertisement and influencer marketing. Then it attempts to investigate the credibility of Instagram influencers in the eyes of male and female users, and evaluates the differences in both genders on the criteria that they decide to follow influencers. This study also evaluates purchase intention of Instagram users based on the product advertisements by influencers to see whether dimensions of source credibility positively impact users’ intent to purchase. For the purpose of this study, a survey of 250 participants was conducted using Amazon MTurk. The results show that about 77 percent of the participants spend more than at least half an hour a day on Instagram and more than half of the participants indicated that their purchase intention is impacted by influencers on this platform. The key findings of this study provide further understanding of the influencers phenomenon on Instagram and give marketers valuable insight in the process of decision-making when running influencer marketing campaigns on Instagram. It provides marketers with more information on how to match up influencers and potential consumers.

As technology advances, the influence of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) surpasses the influence of traditional face-to-face WOM communication on consumers’ decision making. Since the hospitality and tourism products and services contain more interpersonal interaction that needs to be experienced by consumers, the influence of eWOM in the hospitality industry is more significant than in other industries. The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among source credibility of eWOM, customers’ perceived risk, and their behavior intentions to use consumer generated media. The result provides evidence about the influence of eWOM on overall perceived risk and how consumers use eWOM to manage and reduce the potential risks when making their lodging decisions. Academically, it confirms the significance of eWOM influence and connects the gap in the previous literatures between source credibility of eWOM and perceived risk research. Practically, hoteliers can set their marketing strategies precisely aimed to consumers’ needs and are able to build good reputations through those online travel forums or hotel review sites.

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Background: Today, 98% of all Swedish upper secondary school students have Internet access and the majority possess accounts on social media; allowing them to generate content and engage with brands in a new way. Amongst this, we find influencer marketing; a new form of endorsement strategy utilized by companies in the social media setting to promote products and brands.   Problem: Companies rely to a greater extent on influencers, becoming one of their main marketing communication strategies. However, the scarcity of research within influencer marketing regarding credibility may cause marketers to fall into a trap of basing their marketing communication on guesswork; potentially affecting the efficiency of their advertising message.   Purpose: This paper sought to create an understanding of how Generation Z assigns credibility to an influencer and their sponsored posts on Instagram, in the multilayered and complex social media environment, where the question of how may cover both the perceived positive and negative influences on credibility.   Method: A qualitative approach with semi-structured focus groups with 29 participants from Generation Z were conducted. The data collected from the focus groups were later analyzed using the general analytical procedure and further compared with existing literature within the field.   Results: This research indicated that expertise, trustworthiness, similarity, engagement, previous endorsements, influencer and product match, advertisement and feed match and follower count can positively influence the assigning of credibility. Furthermore, the following factors were indicated to negatively influence the assigning of credibility: entertainment value, social ties, mismatch between the influencer and the product, multiple endorsements and advertising and feed match.

Message credibility is a commonly used term to indicate how well the recipients approve the message. Source credibility, on the other hand is a “communicator's positive characteristics that affect the receiver's acceptance of a message” (Ohanian, 1990, pp 41). It has been stated that an effect is apparent between the two, therefore the purpose of this study is to describe the effect of source credibility characteristics; trustworthiness, expertise and attractiveness on message credibility. The study utilized a quantitative research approach in order to describe the effect between the concepts. The researchers used a Likert-scale online questionnaire as the data collection method. The findings of this research suggest that all of the characteristics within the source credibility model are proven to have a significant and positive effect on the message credibility.