Credibility in Persuasive Systems: A Systematic Review

Credibility of systems is important in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and when designing persuasive systems. Still, the role of credibility in the design of persuasive systems remains unclear. To date, there has not been a systematic review examining the concept of credibility in persuasive systems. Therefore, this study presents a systematic literature review of primary empirical studies published from 2011 to 2020 that examined credibility within the context of persuasive systems. A total of 41 publications were reviewed. Overall, the results highlight the trends of credibility research, the theoretical frameworks that have been used to examine credibility, the research methods used in credibility studies, as well as the antecedents, and consequents of credibility in persuasive systems’ context. Majority of the reviewed studies pursued a correlational research approach as opposed to testing theories through experimental studies. While giving little attention to user characteristics and how they influence the relationship between credibility and its antecedents, existing studies have also barely examined the influence of system features as antecedents. Based on these findings, we argue that existing theoretical frameworks do not provide adequate directions for implementing credibility features in system design. Future research should therefore conduct more experimental studies and provide directions for how credibility features can be implemented in system design.