We used an experimental vignette to examine how two aspects of a decision e
xplanation's packaging-its language and labeling of the decision process-af
fected perceptions of a decision maker's competency-based trustworthiness.
These perceptions were higher when either easy-to-understand language or a
legitimating decision process label was present than when both hard-to-unde
rstand language and no decision process label were present. These findings
suggest that peripheral cues related to decision explanations' packaging ma
y play an important role in improving perceptions of trustworthiness.