The effect of task and personal relevance on credibility judgements while searching on the Internet

People can view the Internet as an endless source of information although it is not known how individuals might evaluate the credibility of information that is presented on websites. A methodology is needed to incorporate how the information seeking task, as well as the level of personal relevance, influences the criteria individuals use to evaluate Internet information. Forty subjects completed four search tasks with two of the tasks in topic areas where subjects had a high level of interest and the other two tasks in areas where subjects had a low level of interest. For each of the topic areas the subjects were asked to complete one fact finding task and one task that required more in-depth analysis. The results revealed that there are four factors explaining the subjects’ credibility judgments: competence, coverage, presentation, and trustworthiness. Results of logistic regression suggest that the complexity of the task influences the factors used in judging the credibility of information being presented. However there appears to be no relationship between the levels of personal relevance and criteria used to judge credibility. A revised model is proposed that incorporates the four factors and illustrates how they are used in evaluating credibility.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Andrius Viktoras Kirkyl