Information Credibility between Social Media Site and Review Site : Which One Do I Trust More?

This study aims to examine how the relationship with an information source affects people to perceive credibility of online information. We developed a conceptual framework that explained how people perceived information credibility when they were familiar with the information source and/or when the information source seemed credible. We then compared the models in two different contexts, namely, online review and social media sites, to examine differences. We surveyed 136 online social media users with their online shopping experiences. Among our eight hypotheses, three (H6: the personality similarity between an information provider and an information seeker enhances the perceived credibility of the former; H7: the credibility of an information provider produces a much stronger mediating effect in review sites than in social media sites; H8: the familiarity of an information seeker with an information provider produces a stronger mediating effect in social media sites than in review sites) are fully supported and four (H1: the credibility of an information provider has a positive influence on the perceived credibility of the online information; H2: the familiarity of an information seeker with an information provider has a positive influence on the perceived credibility of the online information; H3: the goal similarity between an information provider and an information seeker enhances the perceived familiarity of the latter with the former; H5: the personality similarity between an information provider and an information seeker enhances the perceived familiarity of the latter with the former) are partially supported. The hypothesis of H4: the goal similarity between an information provider and an information seeker enhances the perceived credibility of the former is rejected. The result confirms that credibility of information is strongly mediated by credibility of information source than familiarity with information source in online review sites and vice versa in social media sites.