Negative Danmaku as Social Warning Cues in Video Credibility Assessment

Danmaku (real-time bullet comments overlaid on videos) addsa visible social layer to viewing, but may also shapecredibility judgments. We report an exploratorymixed-methods study using CogniTrust, a danmaku interfacethat logs user behavior. Forty-six participants watched 15short clips containing true and false claims and judgedeach clip as ``Likely True'' or ``Likely False'' undereither negative or neutral danmaku. Compared with neutraldanmaku, negative danmaku produced faster decisions(M=13.04vs.16.48s) and more likely false judgments(M=78.3%vs.68.1%). Replay behavior was lower but notsignificantly different. Interview data suggest thatparticipants treated negative danmaku as socially visiblewarning cues that oriented suspicion and sometimes reducedthe felt need to re-check details. We argue that danmakucan mediate credibility assessment by shifting viewerstoward faster, more skeptical, and more socially mediatedevaluation.