Credibility

Credibility is a measure of the willingness of the recipient to accept the testimony of a person other than valid. Only in the further of the person and their actions is given credence. Credibility is an attributional property that other is attributed. In particular, the law, psychology, political science and communication studies dealing with the issue in recent decades. Credibility is central to the effectiveness of motives for action and therefore plays in public relations, market research and public opinion polling ( Public Relations ) play an important role.

English expressions are credibility or Belief. Ceiling to the desired image and the reception ( the external image) in the target group is not, it is called Credibility Gap (, credibility gap ').

Formulation of credibility in various fields

Rhetoric

In the public discourse ( rhetoric ) Aristotle already considered the credibility of a speaker and his character as a form of evidence. Aristotle, it placed the ethos, the moral integrity of a person, in contrast to logos ( mental accuracy ) and pathos ( emotional persuasion ).

Game theory

Only recently is trying to provide credibility as such also in a context of measurability ( operationalization ). Important principles developed here, game theory, which seeks more than game attempts to verify and quantify the credibility of the opponent in the game result. Credibility means in the game-theoretic sense, the conviction of an opponent that announcements actually occur. One of the key findings is that " credibility has to be earned"

Social science

The current social science has generally found various dimensions of credibility. Berlo and Lemert mention three:

• Competence
• Trustworthiness
• Dynamism

Legal concept

Credibility as a legal term refers to the trustworthiness of witnesses in the judicial assessment of a witness statement in the context of litigation. In contrast, the credibility of the testimony of the witness himself, that is the measure of its ability to inspire confidence in their accuracy and maintain. Only by both together the veracity of the testimony can be determined.

Market research and public opinion

The credibility of a product, a brand, a party program or campaign, or the persons or institutions that represent them, is a key factor of market and opinion research in politics, economics and other applied social sciences.

There are numerous records under which the credibility is also investigated. An example is the pioneering Rochester study ( Politz 1960) through newspaper advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post:

• Awareness of the statement ( claimsoft familiarity ) (Question: " Leaving aside whether they believe in it or not, the statements about ... are you familiar with ?")
• Credibility of the statement ( was in claimsoft ) (Question: "What are the benefits of ... ?")

Today it holds about three basic factors credibility, awareness and acceptance together.

Criticism

The use of the term ' credibility ' by the media as a criterion for the assessment of policies and politicians has increased inflationary in recent years. Using the example of Richard von Weizsäcker's criticism was leveled at early this keyword:

Only on government loyal base ... you can ' credibility ' ever sell it as a politically relevant category. After all, what there is to be to believe in a politician? Either this means that we are with him abroad as well, they do not take us for what we are, then its credibility is that successful deception to which we are obviously dependent. Or is it that you have not caught him for a long time in the public lies, and that is even with Weizsäcker only because you have not taken the trouble to compare all his speeches and take them seriously. As odd as it is saying: If a politician really would be shocked by something and wanted to change one thing quickly and drastically, one would inevitably say, it is not suitable for his office. In this respect a politician is, by definition, anything other than credible. He says he mourns, but he grieves not, he says he is concerned, but he is not affected. He must never be taken at his word, because he talks fiction, and more than any other is the president of the product of his own fiction ...