Communication Research 1–22 © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0093650214565915 crx.sagepub.com Article On the Conditional Cueing of Credibility Heuristics: The Case of Online Influence Brandon Van Der Heide 1 and Young-shin Lim 2 Abstract When seeking information, Internet users often find multiple communicators co- presenting and expressing their opinions. This study examined how people judge message senders’ credibility in a multi-source environment based on system- generated cues, the consensus among multiple sources, and the effect of receiver’s familiarity with the online platform. Moreover, this research examined the mediating role of source credibility in attitude change in an online consumer-review community. Results indicated that users familiar with a platform were more likely to use system- generated cues for their judgment of credibility along with consensus heuristics, and the combination of heuristics influenced attitude through credibility. However, unfamiliar users relied on consensus heuristics but not system-generated cues. These findings and their theoretical implications are discussed. Keywords online credibility judgments, heuristics, persuasion, computer-mediated communication, eCommerce, online social influence Scholars have paid considerable research attention to the dynamics of credibility assessments online (see Metzger, Flanagin, Eyal, Lemus, & McCann, 2003). The rea- son that researchers have been captivated by this topic is that the Internet is presumed to stretch some of the traditional assumptions upon which much credibility research has been based. Callister (2000) suggests that traditional credibility assessments oper- ated primarily when sources are few and barriers for access are high, but on the 1 Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA 2 The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA Corresponding Author: Brandon Van Der Heide, Department of Communication, Michigan State University, 444 Communication Arts and Sciences Building, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. Email: vdheide@msu.edu 565915CRX XX X 10.1177/0093650214565915Communication ResearchVan Der Heide and Lim research-article 2015 at MICHIGAN STATE UNIV LIBRARIES on October 12, 2015 crx.sagepub.com Downloaded from