Examining Report Content and Social Categorization to Understand Consistency Effects on Credibility

This experiment examined the importance of report content and the role of social categorization in consistency effects on perceived credibility. Community volunteers (N = 374) evaluated the credibility of an adult who described a common, mundane event (everyday event) or a highly unusual, emotional event (intimate partner abuse, IPA) with one of two levels of report consistency. Participants evaluated consistent complainants and persons reporting everyday events more favorably than inconsistent complainants and IPA complainants, respectively. Findings suggest that social categorization fully mediates content effects on credibility. Participants viewed persons reporting everyday events as more similar, more likely to belong to the same group as themselves, and more credible compared to complainants reporting IPA. Social categorization was a weaker mediator of the relationship between consistency and credibility.