Experiment finds trust in financial advice tracks style and labels
A 285-person experiment finds advice style outweighs source labels for safety appraisals; expert style stays preferred even unlabeled. Preprint, first-party.
ImportanceLocalEvidenceE2 unreplicatedWrite-upQuick
A randomized vignette experiment with 285 U.S. adults found advice style, not source labels, most strongly shaped message and safety appraisals.
The study independently varied AI, expert, and online community styles while holding the recommendation constant. Expert labels selectively raised perceived source knowledge, and decision context mainly drove risk and safety judgments.
Expert-style advice remained most preferred even without source labels. This is a first-party preprint result based on hypothetical vignettes; stated trust is not actual reliance.