Credibility is the quality of believable (that can or deserves to be believed). The term comes from the Latin word credibilis. For example: “She lost all credibility with me when she lied to me about his relationship with Lautaro”, “He is a respected and highly credible man”, “Dr. Irene Sánchez built her credibility thanks to the honesty of her work daily”.
Credibility, therefore, refers to the ability to be believed. It is not linked to the veracity of the message, but to the objective and subjective components that make other people believe (or not) in said content. To be credible, the person or information must generate trust in others.
Credibility is linked to the ability to be believed, regardless of the truth of the message.
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About credibility
The following two cases can occur: that a person tells the truth and nobody believes him; that someone lies but his interlocutors trust his words to the letter. This difference is linked to the credibility of people and their ability to convince others.
However, it is important to remember that the basis of credibility should always be honesty, since no person can build a circle of friends that lasts a lifetime if he tries to sustain it with lies and falsehood. No matter how much someone has managed to influence their environment: if it is discovered that they have not been honest, their structure will probably crumble.
Credibility is important in human relationships.
Its importance in certain areas
In some professions and trades, credibility is an essential value. Politicians and journalists must be credible, otherwise their jobs lose importance.
The politician who has no credibility will not be voted for in the elections, while the journalist who finds himself in the same situation will not be well received by the public. Interestingly enough, this does not happen in show business or the electronic entertainment industry.
The credibility of companies
Large companies often play to the limit of honesty, manipulating the truth to their advantage to get their way in difficult times, and trying to compensate their consumers every time they have a good season. It is known that we live in a frenetic era, of constant changes and great demands by the public towards the different markets; the volume of information available to us has turned the innocent buyer into a would-be expert, always wanting more than he gets.
Faced with this phenomenon, the giants of the industry are forced to lie more than once to save time and prepare a product that really meets the needs of their consumers. Year after year, we are presented with the best TV, the most advanced mobile phone, the fastest processor ; It is suspicious that all companies have the most sophisticated product, since dozens of alternatives coexist.
The preparation of a product for market launch, depending on the sector, usually takes a minimum of six months, but in some cases it can take several years. Not even experts are exempt from taking false steps, from dedicating a good portion of their lives to a project with no future; But the money invested in certain decisions makes it impossible to back down, which is why companies are often forced to present to the world a creation they do not trust.
This is the moment in which they undermine their own credibility, looking their audience in the face and assuring them that they have found a product that they will not be able to do without. The same happens with actors and singers, with directors and screenwriters: it is not common for the media to recognize the failure of great artists; it tries to protect an artificial image of perfection, and this is achieved based on lies, which the audience wants to hear.
