Who trusts Twitter? Openness to ideas as a predictor of trust and interest in news of an international disaster presented in Twitter and traditional on-line journalism formats

Twitter is an increasingly utilized tool for communication during major events including natural disasters; however, there is little research investigating this topic and how individual differences might predict reactions to information in this medium. The current study seeks to understand how the personality trait of openness to ideas predicts perceptions of a Twitter source\u27s trustworthiness and interest relative to a journalistic source. Participants were randomly assigned to read a simulated account of a flood presented either as a Twitter account or a journalistic account and then rated perceptions of the sources. Results indicate that Twitter is trusted less than a journalistic account; however, moderator effects revealed that openness to ideas was positively correlated with trust in the Twitter condition but negatively correlated with trust in the journalistic format. The present study helps to clarify the role of personality in the process of consuming information on-line