HSE scientists: social cues in news interfaces build online trust

Researchers from the HSE Laboratory for Cognitive Psychology of Digital Interface Users have discovered how social cues in the design of news websites—such as reader comments, the number of reposts, or the author’s name—can help build user trust. An experiment with 137 volunteers showed that such interface elements make a website appear more trustworthy and persuasive to users, with the strongest cue being links to social media pages. The study's findings have been published in Human-Computer Interaction.

In a digital environment, users most often interact not with a person directly, but with their digital avatar—through text, an icon, or a comment. This is particularly evident in news interfaces, where the user is left alone with the flow of information. Therefore, indications of other people's presence—such as the author’s name beneath an article’s title or the opportunity to share one’s opinion—play an important role in evaluating the content itself. Such elements, known as social cues, create the sense of someone else being present in the interface—be it an author, another reader, or an entire community. This helps alleviate feelings of loneliness and uncertainty. However, the impact of such cues on user trust in news websites has not been studied before. Therefore, a team of researchers from HSE University set out to test how the design of news interfaces influences initial online trust.

Scientists at the HSE Laboratory for Cognitive Psychology of Digital Interface Users conducted an experiment in which participants were shown 60 pairs of screenshots featuring specially designed news interface layouts. Each pair consisted of two identical webpages that differed only in the presence of a social cue—for example, one interface might display a 'share' button or the author’s name, while the other contained no such cues. In total, the researchers tested 12 types of social cues, ranging from the number of article views and social media reposts to a feedback form and links to social media pages.

Ekaterina Kosova

'Seeing that a news outlet has an active social media presence creates a sense of openness and engagement. Users feel they can interact with the source of information rather than just passively consume it, which increases trust,' says Ekaterina Kosova, co-author of the study and Junior Research Fellow at the Laboratory for Cognitive Psychology of Digital Interface Users of the HSE School of Psychology.

Almost all social cues significantly increased user trust in the interface. The strongest effects came from links to the media’s social network pages, indication of the article’s author or editor, and the number of times the article was reposted on social media. The only exception was the chatbot icon: its effect was statistically insignificant and showed a slight decline in trust. According to the researchers, this is likely due to its novelty—users do not expect to see a chatbot on a news site and perceive it as an inappropriate element. 

Before the experiment, participants were divided into three groups. The first group was informed in advance that all news content in the experiment was fake, the second group was told that it was true, and the third group received no information. This allowed the researchers to observe and measure the impact of prior beliefs on user perception of the interface.   

They found that prior judgment had a significant effect: participants who were informed in advance that all the news in the study was fake rated the interfaces significantly lower than those in the other groups. However, there were no significant differences between the average ratings from the group informed that the news was truthful and the group that received no prior information, possibly indicating a baseline level of trust in news sources. 

These findings can be valuable for developers and designers of news websites. According to the authors, incorporating elements of social presence can help increase user trust and combat the spread of fake news. Further research may identify additional strategies to strengthen audience trust and improve the quality of news content.

The study was conducted with support from the HSE Basic Research Programme.