User Perception of Content Credibility in E-Commerce Websites: Insight from Behavioral Economics Theories ^†

Abstract

This study investigates the factors influencing the perceived credibility of advertising content on e-commerce platforms, drawing on behavioral economics and communication theories. Through a quasi-experimental design involving 156 participants, we analyzed how message features, product importance, and socio-demographic variables affect user perceptions. The results reveal that users assign higher credibility to simple, essential content and that gender plays a significant role, with women perceiving paramedical and technical content as more credible. Age, however, showed no significant influence. The discussion highlights the psychological mechanisms behind these behaviors, such as risk and ambiguity aversion, and proposes implications for digital marketing strategies and future research.

1. Introduction

While many consumers use Internet, this tool is still relatively new and sometimes disorientating for some of them. These consumers rarely find the interpersonal comfort provided by face-to-face retail representatives as they do in shops. As a result, they are likely to seek out and buy from brands they trust in order to avoid the risks associated with online transactions [1]. However, with the abundance of information available to consumers, building credibility and recognition is a major challenge for companies, in order to guarantee stable demand for their products.

The notion of credibility refers to a company’s ability to deliver reliable and relevant messages, allowing consumers to better appreciate the perceived usefulness of a product and not only increasing trust in the brand, but also encouraging purchase intention [2,3]. Although there is no clear approach to developing and maintaining the credibility of the content of online companies’ advertising campaigns, they continue to spend considerable sums on advertising in traditional media to build initial brand recognition before directing consumers to their online platforms [4].

However, despite the growing maturity of communication methods, the perceived credibility of marketing content is regularly challenged. This is due to the rise of sponsored influencers, manipulated opinions and misrepresentation of certain products. From this perspective, this article adopts the IMRaD structure (Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion) to make a rigorous scientific contribution to understanding the role of credibility in the content of promotional campaigns. The study presented in this article explores the determinants of credibility in order to guarantee the effectiveness of web advertising. The methodology will present the empirical protocol used. The results will highlight the main findings of our study. Finally, the discussion will analyze the managerial and theoretical implications, revealing possible areas for future research.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Notion of Credibility

According to signal theory [5], advertising plays the role of a signal, attracting the attention of a target. As stipulated in this theory, signals are predominant in economic transactions, since they maintain the continuity of information circulating in the market, creating a dynamic between buyers and sellers. In this context, the question of the credibility of signals seems fundamental, given the economic and psychological risk associated with decision-making [6].

Credibility can be interpreted as a judgment developed by the receiver of the information regarding the message and its sender [7,8]. In the field of marketing, credibility refers to a positive or negative judgment adopted by the prospect toward the advertising information provided through the various channels.

Since the 1950s, communication researchers have been interested in credibility, however, without being able to define it clearly [9]. Despite this, there is a dominant viewpoint in all these definitions, namely that credibility can be defined as the believability of information and/or its source [10]. O’Keefe [11] describes credibility as a perceiver’s judgment of a communicator’s believability. A review of existing literature shows that the concept has been studied in various academic disciplines such as information science, psychology, sociology, marketing, communication and health sciences, among others [12]. This has been done according to multilevel perspectives and based on the characteristics which determine a persuasive source, in addition to the structure and content of the message, while taking into consideration how the media are perceived.

Some researchers suggest that attitude change is based on recipients’ attention to and understanding of the information, as well as their willingness to accept and retain this information and consequently influence their purchase intention [13]. This process is influenced by factors relating to the source, message, and content of the information [14]. Indeed, consumers give credibility to products based on several aspects such as the product brand, the advertising message transmitted, the reputation of the company issuing the product, and the channels through which the message is disseminated [4].

2.2. Message Features and Credibility

According to the literature, the characteristics of a message that are related to credibility emerge from three areas: message credibility [11], information accountability [15] and information quality [3,16]; these three areas refer to specific aspects of the message that contribute to the perception of credibility. In terms of message credibility, several message characteristics have been found to be associated with perceived credibility, including the use of quotes, testimonials, and statistics [11].

Research examining online information has shown that content with known references is perceived as more credible than content without them. In response to concerns about the increasing availability of online information, particularly in the area of health, a number of measures have been introduced to help consumers look for specific elements in the message to ensure the credibility of the information provider. The most common elements include mention of the author, reference to sources of information, the timeliness of the information (i.e., dates when content was modified), and criteria for selecting the information [15,17,18]. These categories are similar to those used in research on information quality, which has shown that the timeliness of information, authorship, and other message characteristics are associated with credibility [3,19].

Multiple studies have identified other related concepts, including currency, accuracy, trustworthiness, completeness, precision, objectivity, and informativeness [20,21]. However, reliability, accuracy, and completeness remain important credibility criteria for different types of information objects such as traditional websites, social media, and multimedia content [22].

Information quality refers to people’s subjective judgements about the quality and usefulness of information in certain contexts of information use in relation to their own information expectations or in relation to other available information. Information quality has five facets: usefulness, quality, accuracy, timeliness, and importance [3].

Although different terms have been used to describe the characteristics of messages, they all refer to specific aspects of the message that influence the perception of credibility. These observations on message features are reflected in the following hypothesis:

H1. 

The characteristics of advertising information influence Internet users’ perception of its credibility.

2.3. Socio-Demographic Factors and Individual Differences in the Assessment of Online Credibility

The diversity of individuals has an impact on the assessment of credibility of individuals [23], in part because certain cues are more relevant to certain people [24]. Studies have shown, for example, that experts on the topic use more criteria to assess the quality of information on a website and the references of an information source, and that they are less likely to rely exclusively on the visual appeal of the site to assess its credibility, compared with less knowledgeable users [25]. Similar findings support the hypothesis that people pay attention to different criteria when judging the credibility of online information [26].

As a result, a number of personality traits have been studied to explain people’s credibility beliefs and evaluation practices, including cognitive dispositions or “thinking styles”. These studies have shown that cognitive dispositions influence the way people approach and evaluate information. Need for cognition, for example, reflects the extent to which people engage in deep thinking about problems or information and enjoy reflecting on them [27] and, as a result, may be willing to make efforts to evaluate information critically.

This study will be a first attempt to determine the impact of socio-demographic variables on the evaluation of web credibility. To assess the influence of these criteria in evaluating information, we propose to test the impact of age and gender variables on perceived credibility to complement previous work on cognitive dispositions.

H2. 

Internet users’ gender has a significant impact on their perception of the credibility of advertising content.

H3. 

Internet users’ age influences their perception of the credibility of advertising content.

3. Methodology

To investigate how web users perceive the credibility of audio-visual content offered by e-commerce platforms, we conducted a semi-experimental approach consisting of showing these users advertising videos describing how to use specific products, and then asking them to determine the degree of credibility accorded to the content. In order to conduct this study, we targeted 156 individuals.

The study was based on the Psytoolkit platform, which is dedicated to psychological experiments, behavioral, and experimental economics [28,29]. The subjects were shown videos from various fields selected from the world’s major e-commerce platforms.

The subject is invited to watch the videos and then answer a series of questions designed to gather information about the respondents and their perception of the product as can be seen in Figure 1. Firstly, a binary question is used to identify the respondent’s profile. Next, a categorical question is used to find out the respondent’s age. Then, after watching each video, the subject is asked to assess the importance of the product and its suitability, both of which are formulated as binary questions requiring a choice between two options (essential/optional and accurate/inaccurate). A final binary question measures the perceived credibility of the content presented in 4 areas: paramedical, technical, entertainment, and lifestyle (Yes/No).

4. Results

4.1. Description of the Sample

Based on a sample of 156 individuals distributed according to gender and age, we found that 56% of subjects were women, while 44% were men. In terms of age distribution, 38% of subjects were under 30 and 41% were between 31 and 50 years old, with the remaining 21% being over 51 years old. In terms of educational level, 89% held a university degree, whereas 10% had a post-secondary qualification and only 1% had a secondary-level education.

4.2. Credibility Analysis of Marketing Content: Overall Assessment

In order to obtain a more detailed picture of the credibility of marketing content, we used the non-parametric Chi-square test. This test examines the independence between two nominal or categorical variables. The Figure 2 below show the results of the test by increasing the credibility variable along with content importance and message features (i.e., accuracy).

The test revealed statistical significance between Internet users’ perception of the credibility of marketing content and the importance of the product promoted: χ² (1; N = 156) = 32.689, p < 0.01, Φ = 0.458. Internet users give the content of products that they consider essential more credibility than optional products. Similarly, the Phi test consists of identifying the size of the effect; in our case, the importance of the product has a 45.8% influence on internet users’ perception of the credibility of the content.

When it comes to message features, the test shows statistical significance between web users’ perception of the credibility of marketing content and the information quality of the product being promoted: χ² (1; N = 156) = 10.621, p < 0.01, Φ = 0.261. The accuracy of information refers to how easily it can be perceived and understood. Customers tend to perceive promotional messages containing accurate information as more credible. The Phi test reveals that the quality of information about a product influences web users’ perception of the credibility of advertising content by 26.1%.

4.3. Analysis of the Credibility of Advertising Content by Gender

Using Levene’s test, the results for paramedical content (F (1,154) = 18.179, p < 0.01) and technical content (F (1,154) = 16.063, p < 0.01) revealed heterogeneity of variance between the two genders. This leads us to justify the interpretation of the t-test with the hypothesis of inequality of variance. Furthermore, the results for entertainment and lifestyle content show a homogeneity of variances. The t-test was applied and revealed significant gender differences for paramedical content t (154) = 5.126, p < 0.01 and technical content t (154) = 3.073, p < 0.01. These results highlight that Internet users’ perceptions of credibility significantly change according to gender, i.e., women are more likely to rate advertising content for paramedical and technical products as credible. In contrast, entertainment content t (154) = −1.376, p > 0.1 and lifestyle content t (154) = −0.672, p > 0.1 there was no significant statistical difference. This leads us to believe that the perception of the credibility of these types of content is the same for all genders.

4.4. Analysis of the Credibility of Advertising Content by Age

The statistical analysis of the perceived credibility of advertising content according to the age of the participants reveals a lack of significant differences between the age groups, regardless of the type of content evaluated. In fact, the results of Levene’s test indicate a homogeneity of variances for all content: paramedical (F (1,62) = 0.178, n.s), technical (F (1,62) = 2.313, n.s), entertainment (F (1,62) = 2.151, n.s) and lifestyle (F (1,62) = 1.022, n.s), which justifies the use of the ‘Equal variances assumed’ line for t-test interpretation. After applying Student’s t-tests, the results reveal that no statistically significant differences exist between the age groups for paramedical content t (62) = 0.217, p > 0.1, technical content t (62) = −0. 965, p > 0.1, entertainment content t (62) = −1.535, p > 0.1, and lifestyle content t (62) = −1.265, p > 0.1. These results suggest that, unlike the results of the previous study, age has no effect on the perception of credibility.

These results suggest that, unlike the differences observed for gender, age is not a significant differentiating factor in assessing the credibility of advertising content, regardless of the type of product presented.

5. Discussion

The findings reveal that Internet users generally identify simple, essential advertising content as credible, reflecting a preference for clear, relevant messages. In addition, women often perceive paramedical and technical content as more credible. For a better understanding of the psychological background to these behaviors, we will refer to two theories of behavioral economics that provide a clearer view of human behavior in economic decision-making: The first theory states that marketing content represents a source of information which, in economic theory, is seen as a valuable resource [30]. A number of economic studies on information have proposed theoretical models for better management, measurement, and use of information to limit uncertainty and risk. In this experiment, we found that individuals give more credibility to simple products and accurate content, despite optional and inaccurate content.

This can be explained by the presence of two underlying anomalies: First, risk aversion, which reflects a psychological tendency towards avoidance, influenced by internet users’ perceptions of incoming information. Loewenstein and colleagues [31] highlight the fact that emotions are considered to be an essential part of the decision-making process, resulting in risk-averse behavior often being based on negative emotions such as fear [32] or anticipated regret [33]. Similarly, Ganguly & Tasoff [34] have argued that individuals avoid negative information even if it could be useful to them in the future. The second anomaly is ambiguity aversion. Golman et al. [35,36,37] examined the impact of the absence of information in the economic decision-making process. Golman and Loewenstein [13] proposed the concept of information gap. This is a situation characterized by awareness but uncertainty about possible responses. Individuals often pay attention to this situation of asymmetric information using two key factors: (a) Salience: The degree to which uncertainty is perceptible or predictable in a situation. (b) Importance: At what level the outcome of this uncertainty is important to us. Ganguly & Tasoff [34] claim that people are willing to pay in order to acquire information that does not enhance their future decisions just to feed their imagination and reduce their perceived uncertainty. These results are based on the fact that internet users, guided by positive emotions Associated With a product, give more credibility to descriptive information obtained, and they avoid negative or inaccurate information about this product, preferring to remain in the dark to avoid stress or uncertainty.

The second theory relates to the theories of choice based on satisfaction, which is based on beliefs. These approaches suggest that individuals allow themselves to be guided by their own beliefs rather than tangible outcomes in order to maximize their well-being. According to this perspective, the acquisition and interpretation of information can be influenced by several criteria: anticipatory feelings [38], self-confidence [39], subjective preferences [40]. Falk and Zimmermann [41] observed that preference for information depends on individuals’ beliefs. If the anticipated information is positive, individuals prefer to receive it quickly, unlike negative information which leads them to wait to receive it. Similarly, the authors also observed that individuals prefer to receive information as a whole, thus avoiding fragmented information. Ganguly & Tasoff [34] have shown that individuals prefer to receive useless information that increases their emotional utility, even if this information provides no added value in rational decision-making. Likewise, they are more willing to avoid negative information in order to maximize their utility, even if this may negatively influence their future choice. Based on these contributions, it is possible to explain why female internet users give more credibility to paramedical and technical products, since they offer them a high perceived value.

6. Conclusions

Overall, this study confirms the results of previous work on the credibility of sources and the effectiveness of web advertising by examining the relevant variables in a systematic way. The results of the study revealed numerous significant relationships between the variables studied, including the content of the advertising message. For example, when consumers are highly interested in the content because of its importance to them, they may find the product information related to the content more useful and therefore respond more favorably to the ad. In conclusion, the contribution of the present study is reflected in the examination of perceived credibility as a function of a variety of factors, including message characteristics, the nature of the content of the advertisement, and the socio-demographic characteristics of the target, with little or no knowledge of the source [42,43]. For future research, it would be interesting to see, in addition to the effect of the content of the advertising message on credibility, the effect of the characteristics of the online platform on which the message is broadcast and its compatibility with the nature of the product on credibility and consequently purchase or recommendation intention.