Credibility

Credibility is the quality or power of inspiring belief or trustworthiness. In the professional world, a person's or company's credibility often determines success or failure. [1] Today, credibility online has become an important topic.

e.g.

Build your credibility before persuading.

American credibility in the war on terrorism depends on a strong stand against all terrorist acts, whether committed by foe or friend. Arlen Specter.

Synonyms: reliability, plausible, likely, reasonable, tenable.

Antonyms: incredibility, implausibility, improbability, unreasonableness.

Credibility-enhancing actions include: Showing you care about the other person and have their best interests at heart. [2]

Language that reduces credibility includes: Totally and absolutely excessive exaggeration. Ibidem

Whitehead, J.L. (1968) identified expertise, dynamism, and trustworthiness as factors impacting credibility; other key factors that impact credibility include: age, gender, country of origin, and education and income levels. [3]

Establishing credibility includes:

• Being honest is more than telling the truth. Hidden agendas and withheld information compromise your honesty even if everything you say is true.
• Follow through with promises.
• Back up your words.
• Maintain confidentiality. [4]

Be objective and specific and support what you say with evidence, such as facts, statistics or testimonials. Be even-handed; If you are presenting possibilities, give all options a fair hearing and don’t leave out important information. If your reader finds out you’ve omitted key facts, you’ll lose credibility.[5]

Components of witness credibility are:

• Expertise
• Reliability
• Trustworthiness
• Objectivity
• Dynamism [7]

• Liberal bias
• Devotion
• Encourage
• Confirmation bias
• Paradigm
• Objectivity

• Digital Media and Credibility.
• Web Credibility Project. Stanford University.
• Online Credibility: How To Gain More Of It.
• How to Make Yourself a More Credible Speaker. by Guila Muir and Associates.