Here's a study that might be even more interesting: 1. Have a reporter write a series of stories on several topics. 2. Label these stories with the same autho

Here's a study that might be even more interesting: 1. Have a reporter write a series of stories on several topics. 2. Label these stories with the same author name and have Group A read them. 3. Label these stories with a bunch of different names and have Group B read them. 4. Have both groups rate the trustworthiness of each story as they read them. My theory is that we tend to trust sources we know more. I would expect that Group A would report higher levels of trust for the last stories they read, even if they disagree with the author, because they've been told they're reading the same person's work. The way I personally read news reflects this. There are many authors on the news sources I frequent who I am familiar with. Some I consider to be heavily biased or idiots but, being familiar with their shortcomings, I feel I can get a better picture of the objective truth from their work than I can from reading something written by someone I know nothing about. I trust authors based on what I have read from them in the past rather than their biographies. For this reason, bios and clearly visible author names/pictures may not increase the reader's trust in isolated articles, but it may help build trust with regular readers over time.