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Source Trustworthiness Scale

STWSPerceived honesty, ethicality, genuineness, and trustworthiness of a communication source or messenger
4 items 2015 α 0.92 Free TourĂ©-Tillery, M., & McGill, A. L.

What it measures

Four semantic differential adjective pairs assess the extent to which a person is perceived as honest, ethical, genuine, and trustworthy. The scale captures a core dimension of source credibility -- moral integrity and benevolence -- rather than expertise or attractiveness. Although the items can in principle be applied to non-human sources such as organisations or anthropomorphised products, the scale is best suited for evaluating human communicators or spokespeople.

Representative items

Citation

Touré-Tillery, M., & McGill, A. L. (2015). Who or what to believe: Trust and the differential persuasiveness of human and anthropomorphized messengers. Journal of Marketing, 79(4), 94-110.

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