Photos Make Websites More Credible
Published on Mar 28, 2007 (updated Feb 5, 2024), filed under design, photography (feed). (Share this on Mastodon or Bluesky?)
This and many other posts are also available as a pretty, well-behaved ebook: On Web Development.
An important finding of Stanford University’s work regarding web credibility is that photos can make websites more credible. A study by B.J. Fogg et al., Web Credibility Research: A Method for Online Experiments and Early Study Results (PDF, 25 KB), showed how “a photograph of an author had significant effects on how people perceived [credibility]”:
| Credibility measure | No author photo (mean) | Casual author photo (mean) | Formal author photo (mean) | Statistically significant? (between groups) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| How believable is article? | .70 | .41 | .92 | p = .03 |
| How trustworthy is article? | .17 | –.17 | .41 | p = .003 |
| How competent is article? | .35 | .15 | .67 | p = .02 |
| How credible is article? | .34 | .15 | .47 | NS |
| How unbiased is article? | .76 | .58 | .63 | NS |
| How expert is article? | .27 | –.09 | .47 | p = .009 |
| Composite measure (combining all six items) | .42 | .17 | .60 | p = .02 |
Though this is just one out of a number of aspects of web credibility—the Stanford-Makovsky Web Credibility Study 2002 (PDF, 461 KB) is still a highly recommendable read—it is an important one, and eventually still surprising. As professional sites should consider all major credibility factors it’s interesting to note the potential of many sites. It’s no rocket science to create credible, trustworthy offers of information (no, MySpace), and we shouldn’t get tired to work on that aim.
About Me
I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve been working as a technical lead and engineering manager for companies you’ve never heard of and companies you use every day, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.
I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)