{"pk":24731,"title":"Common sense reasoning about credibility","subtitle":null,"abstract":"We often rely on others' testimony when learning about new topics, such as health benefits of a novel food. However, the sources are not always knowledgeable, helpful, or unbiased, necessitating an assessment of their credibility. Here, we present a Bayesian model of source credibility, where a listener simultaneously infers the expertise and intention of the source while trying to discern the truth. A key prediction is that rational inference of credibility requires anchoring it on some kernel of shared knowledge. We consider a scenario where both parties have noisy access to the ground truth of familiar topics (e.g., is broccoli healthy?), which serves as a basis for reasoning about a source's credibility on novel topics (e.g., is avocado healthy?). This approach provides a computational framework for understanding how people respond to information in domains like science communication and media consumption.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Philosophy; Reasoning; Social cognition; Theory of Mind; Bayesian modeling"}],"section":"Abstracts","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0z60f8dv","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Peiyao","middle_name":"","last_name":"Hu","name_suffix":"","institution":"Stevens Institute of Technology","department":""},{"first_name":"Mark","middle_name":"K","last_name":"Ho","name_suffix":"","institution":"Stevens Institute of Technology","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2024-01-01T19:00:00+01:00","render_galley":{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24731/galley/21020/download/"},"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24731/galley/14329/download/"},{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24731/galley/18187/download/"},{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/24731/galley/21020/download/"}]}