Trust, Skepticism, and Persuasive Communication: From Message Design to Neuromarketing and Biometrics

Trust is central to whether persuasive communication succeeds, particularly when audiences encounter claims about products, brands, social issues, health, or sustainability. Yet trust is increasingly difficult to secure in environments characterized by information overload, skepticism, greenwashing concerns, AI-generated content, influencer communication, and blurred boundaries between advertising and editorial or user-generated content. Message design, evidence quality, source cues, disclosure, claim specificity, and perceived authenticity can all shape whether audiences accept, question, or reject persuasive claims. Advances in eye-tracking, consumer neuroscience, and biometric measurement now make it possible to examine the attentional, emotional, and physiological processes that underlie those judgments as they unfold.This Research Topic aims to advance understanding of how audiences evaluate persuasive claims and how communication can foster appropriately calibrated trust rather than uncritical acceptance. We invite research that identifies the message, source, audience, and contextual factors that influence credibility, persuasion, skepticism, verification, and behavioral responses across commercial advertising and public-interest communication. We particularly encourage work on green and sustainability claims, where the distinction between credible environmental communication and perceived greenwashing is increasingly consequential. The Research Topic also welcomes methodological innovation that complements self-report and behavioral measures with eye-tracking, pupillometry, electrodermal activity, heart rate and its variability (HRV), facial or neural measures, and multimodal approaches. Such work can clarify when attention, arousal, and cognitive effort converge with, or diverge from, stated trust and persuasion outcomes.We welcome empirical, theoretical, methodological, and review contributions addressing topics including, but not limited to:• trust, credibility, skepticism, persuasion knowledge, and claim verification• message design, framing, evidence, claim specificity, disclosures, warnings, and source and authorship cues• green claims, sustainability communication, greenwashing, authenticity, and corporate responsibility• AI-generated or AI-mediated advertising, misinformation, influencer and native advertising, and public-interest campaigns• visual attention, information processing, and decision-making in persuasive environments• eye-tracking, pupillometry, electrodermal activity (EDA/GSR), electrocardiography and heart rate variability (ECG/HRV), electroencephalography (EEG), facial measures, consumer neuroscience, neuromarketing, and multimodal biometrics• methodological validation, reproducibility, and integration of psychophysiological, behavioral, and self-report evidence.Comparative, cross-cultural, laboratory, field, and mixed-method studies are especially welcome when they clarify mechanisms, boundary conditions, or practical implications.Information and Instructions for AuthorsManuscript summaries (Frontiers' name for abstracts) of up to 500 words will be considered until 1 December 2026. Authors are strongly encouraged to submit a manuscript summary before submitting a full manuscript. Topic editors: Ioanna Yfantidou, Stefanos Balaskas Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85725/trust-skepticism-and-persuasive-communication-from-message-design-to-neuromarketing-and-biometrics