Trustworthiness Perceptions of Social Media Resources Named after a Crisis Event

Abstract

People often create social media accounts and pages named after crisis events. We call such accounts and pages Crisis Named Resources (CNRs). CNRs share information about crisis events and are followed by many. Yet, they also appear suddenly (at crisis onset) and in most cases, the owners are unknown. Thus, it can be challenging for audiences in particular to know whether to trust (or not trust) these CNRs and the information they provide. In this study, we conducted surveys and interviews with members of the public and experts in crisis informatics, emergency response, and communication studies to evaluate the trustworthiness of CNRs named after the 2017 Hurricane Irma. Findings showed that participants evaluated trustworthiness based on their perceptions of a CNR's content, information source, profile, and owner. Findings also show that if people perceive that a CNR owner has prior experience in crisis response, can help the public to respond to the event, understands the situation, has the best interests of affected individuals in mind, or will correct misinformation, they tend to trust that CNR. Participant demographics and expertise showed no effect on perceptions of trustworthiness.

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