Twitter Politics: The Effect of Language Style and Source Type on Credibility Judgments

Politicians can harness social media to influence public perception and shape narratives about current events. Twitter is a social media site that many users engage with for information-seeking purposes. This study investigates how language style and source type influences media viewers’ perceptions on Twitter. In an experiment, participants were presented with tweets that varied by the formality of language used and the type of account used varied by political or personal accounts. Findings suggest a difference in source credibility judgments on the account type and language style used. Specifically, participants viewed formal language and professional accounts as more competent, while informal language and personal account types resulted in a higher degree to perceived technology affordance. Ultimately, who the tweeter is and how the tweeter presents the political information matters for user credibility judgments. The present research has implications for the diffusion of political information on social media platforms, and provides insight into how the formality of language can be important for politicians to consider.