Trust is when one person or group is willing to rely on another person or group to do something important for them, even if they can’t watch them all the time (Mayer et al., 1995). Trust can be affected by how long people have known each other and how well they get along (Mayer et al., 1995). Trustworthiness is when someone is considered reliable, kind, and honest, qualities that can influence whether someone decides to trust them or not. In fact, Mayer et al. (1995) defined three factors of trustworthiness: ability, benevolence, and integrity, which are perceived by the trustor and influence decision making. In sports, trust is important in relationships between coaches and athletes, athletes and other athletes, and organizations and teams (Dreiskaemper et al., 2016). Credibility, on the other hand, is how believable someone or something is, like a message or a source of information. It’s based on whether people see them as knowledgeable and trustworthy (Kohring & Matthes, 2007). In sports, having credible sources of information is important as the current age of information requires people to evaluate the information they are provided (Dreiskämper, 2019).
Dreiskämper, D. (2019). In D. Hackfort, R. J. Schinke, & B. Strauss (Eds.), Dictionary of sport psychology: Sport, exercise, and performing arts (p. 310-311). Academic Press.
Dreiskaemper, D., Po ̈ppel, K., Westmattelmann, D., Schewe, G., & Strauß, B. (2016). Trust processes in sport in the con- text of doping. In B. Blo ̈baum (Ed.), Trust and communica- tion in a digitized world (pp. 125141). Berlin: Springer.
Kohring, M., & Matthes, J. (2007). Trust in news media: Development and validation of a multidimensional scale. Communication Research, 34, 231252.
Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20, 709734.
