Selecting good sources of information is a critical skill to navigate our highly social world. To evaluate the epistemic reputation of potential sources, the main criterion should be the relevance of the information they provide us. In two online experiments (N = 801), we found that receivers are more thankful toward, deem more competent, and are more likely to request information in the future from sources of more relevant messages—if they know the message to be accurate or deem it plausible. To prevent sources from presenting information as more relevant than it is in order to improve their reputation, receivers lower the reputation of sources sending messages that are more relevant-if-true, if they know the message to be inaccurate. Our research sheds light on the reputational trade-offs involved in choosing what information to communicate and helps explain transmission patterns such as rumors diffusion.

中文翻译：

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相关性会得到社会回报，但不会以准确性为代价

选择良好的信息来源是驾驭高度社交化世界的一项关键技能。为了评估潜在来源的认知声誉，主要标准应该是它们向我们提供的信息的相关性。在两个在线实验（N = 801）中，我们发现接收者会更加感激，认为自己更有能力，并且将来更有可能从更相关的消息来源请求信息——如果他们知道消息是准确的或认为这似乎是合理的。为了防止消息来源提供比实际更相关的信息以提高其声誉，如果接收者知道消息不准确，则会降低发送更相关消息（如果属实）的消息来源的声誉。我们的研究揭示了选择要传达的信息所涉及的声誉权衡，并有助于解释谣言传播等传播模式。