Perceived Credibility in News Depending on Author Race & Statistical Evidence

This 2x2 between-subjects experiment investigated the impact of the race of the reporter and statistical evidence upon perceived credibility. This study was run at a small midwestern university with 65 participants (60% female and 40% male) that had an average age of 19.26 years. These participants were asked to read a news article in an online format, answer a few short-answer questions over the content of the article, take a quick survey, answer a set of multiple choice questions about the content, and complete a demographic survey. The survey that the participants completed was adapted from a credibility scale utilized by Gaziano and McGrath (1986) and measured credibility on a five-point likert scale. It has been hypothesized that articles with more statistical evidence present will lead to higher ratings of credibility in relation to the report and a white male author will lead to higher ratings of credibility in relation to the article. Finally, an interaction was also hypothesized between the race of the author and the statistical evidence present in the article such that when there is a presence of statistical evidence, the credibility ratings of the black and white male authors will not show a statistical difference. Whereas, without the presence of statistical evidence, the black male author will lead to significantly lower ratings in credibility in comparison to the white male author. A 2x2 between-subjects ANOVA indicated no significant results (p > .05) suggesting that neither race or statistical evidence has a significant impact upon credibility.