Croatian adolescents’ credibility judgments in making everyday life decisions

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate how high school students judged the credibility of information obtained for help with making everyday life decisions. Semi-structured individual interviews were carried out to reveal what reasons lay behind their belief in the quality, accuracy and helpfulness of the information. The results reveal that the students preferred turning to interpersonal information sources. The information obtained was perceived to be credible in cases when the source had been characterized with attributes that expressed competence and trustworthiness (such as expertise, knowledge and precision). Other important indicators of information credibility in cases of interpersonal information sources were the characteristics that expressed personal trust and the quality of the relationship with the source. Information on social media was judged by socially generated cues that expressed reputation and popularity in the users’ community. Lastly, credibility was verified by checking the consistency of information from multiple sources.