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Replication Data for: When Do Sources Persuade? The Effect of Source Credibility on Opinion Change

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication Data for: When Do Sources Persuade? The Effect of Source Credibility on Opinion Change
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/GEJGV8
 
Creator Clemm von Hohenberg, Bernhard
Andrew M. Guess
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Discussions around declining trust in the U.S. media can be vague about its effects. One classic answer comes from the persuasion literature, in which source credibility plays a key role. However, existing research almost universally takes credibility as a given. To overcome the potentially severe confounding that can result from this, we create a hypothetical news outlet and manipulate to what extent it is portrayed as credible. We then randomly assign subjects to read op-eds attributed to the source. Our credibility treatments are strong, increasing trust in our mock source until up to ten days later. We find some evidence that the resulting higher perceived credibility boosts the persuasiveness of arguments about more partisan topics (but not for a less politicized issue). Though our findings are mixed, we argue that this experimental approach can fruitfully enhance our understanding of the interplay between source trust and opinion change over sustained periods. \par \vspace{.3cm} \textbf{Keywords:} source credibility, persuasion, media trust, attitude change
 
Subject Social Sciences
source credibility
persuasion
media trust
attitude change
 
Contributor Clemm von Hohenberg, Bernhard