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Credibility and Human Information Behavior

Credibility and Human Information Behavior. Soo Young Rieh School of Information University of Michigan Information Ethics Roundtable Misinformation and Disinformation April 3-4, 2009 University of Arizona, Tucson. Yale Group – Carl Hovland (1950s) .

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Credibility and Human Information Behavior

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  1. Credibility and Human Information Behavior Soo Young Rieh School of Information University of Michigan Information Ethics RoundtableMisinformation and Disinformation April 3-4, 2009University of Arizona, Tucson

  2. Yale Group – Carl Hovland (1950s) • Defined credibility as a receiver-based construct • Determined by audience’s acceptance of a speaker • Credibility = trustworthiness and expertise • Looking at both source credibility (characteristics of speakers) and message credibility (characteristics of messages or information)

  3. Two key dimensions • Trustworthiness: Perceived goodness and morality of the source • Expertise: perceived knowledge, skill, and experience of the source

  4. Credibility Typology 1 • Presumed credibility • Based on general assumptions (stereotype) • Reputed credibility • Endorsement from people, media, source • Surface credibility • From simple inspection • Experienced credibility • Based on first-hand experience Tseng & Fogg (1999)

  5. Credibility Typology 2 • Conferred credibility • Recommended or produced by well-regarded entities • Tabulated credibility • Influenced by other individual’s ratings or recommendations • Emergent credibility • Arises from group and social engagement Flanagin & Metzger (2008)

  6. Related Concepts • Information Quality • Credibility of one of the chief aspects of quality • Credibility provides one more layer of evaluation to select items that are initially judged to be good enough • Cognitive Authority • More than competence and trustworthiness • Influence other people’s thoughts individually • Trust • Reliability, dependability, confidence in a person, object, or process Rieh & Danielson (2007)

  7. What is Human Information Behavior? • Human information behavior • How do people recognize information need, seek for information and use the information through various types of systems, services, technology • Totality of human behavior including both active and passive information seeking and information use

  8. What is Information Seeking Behavior? • What people do in response to goals (intentions) which require information support • How people seek information by interacting with various information systems • Information Searching Behavior • Behavior employed by the searcher in interacting with information systems

  9. Nature of Credibility • Selecting credible information during the information seeking process is a challenge • People make judgments of information credibility • Judgments and decisions are always made internally and can be observed through choice and its outcome • Credibility assessments are shaped by, embedded within, and exert an influence on people’s information seeking process

  10. Credibility and HIB • Credibility assessment can be better understood by examining information seeking strategies with respect to goals and tasks • Credibility assessment as a process • Predictive Judgments • Predictions reflecting what they can expect when accessing information resources • Evaluative Judgments • They express values and preferences about information • Verification

  11. My Past Credibility Research • Credibility assessment in the process of information seeking and Web searching • Credibility assessment in a wide variety of information seeking activities using diverse sources and media • Credibility assessment with respect to various goals and tasks related to school, work, health, product, hobbies, entertainment, etc.

  12. Exploratory Study (1998) • How do people make judgments about information quality and authority? • Do people apply their evaluation criteria used in traditional information systems to those in the Web? Rieh & Belkin (1998). ASIST Proceedings

  13. Major Findings from 1998 Study • The interviewees were more or less concerned with evaluating information quality depending upon three factors: • Consequences of use of information • Act or commitment based on information • The focus of inquiry • Most interviewees employed “different rules” or “different evaluation criteria” for the Web than in traditional information systems

  14. Experimental Study (2002) • How do people decide which information source(s) to look at when they make choices among multiple sources in the Web? • To what extent are people concerned with quality and authority when they search in the Web? • What are the characteristics and factors that influence people’s judgments about information quality and cognitive authority? Rieh (2002). JASIST

  15. Major Findings from 2002 Study • Judgment and decision making in the Web is a continuous process • Subjective, relative, and situational nature in the dimensions of quality and authority • Content as a critical factor • Diverse ways of characterizing sources • Institutional level of source > individual level of source

  16. Characteristics of information objects Characteristics of sources Predictive Judgment EvaluativeJudgment Predictive Judgment Judgment of IQ and CA - 5 dimensions of IQ - 6 dimensions of CA User’s knowledge Other factors Status/ discipline Task

  17. Credibility Judgments and Everyday Life Information Seeking Study (2008) • How do people make credibility assessment with respect to a variety of information activities using diverse sources and media? • How are people’s credibility concerns are related to their information seeking goals? • How do people’ credibility assessment influence on their information seeking strategies? Rieh & Hilligoss (2008). A chapter in Digital media, youth, and credibility; Hilligoss & Rieh (2008). Information Processing & Management;

  18. Major Findings from 2008 Study • Credibility concerns are closely related to information seeking goals in terms of consequences of information use • Credibility judgments in social context • When information obtained affects other people, credibility concerns increase • Participants relied on other people’s credibility judgments • Credibility assessment can be better understood by looking at information seeking strategies • Starting at a trusted place • Using multiple resources and cross-referencing

  19. Three Levels of Credibility Assessment Construct: conceptualizations of credibility Heuristics: General rules of thumb which are broadly applicable to a variety of situations Interaction: Specific attributes associated with particular information objects and sources for credibility judgments

  20. A Unifying Framework of Credibility Assessment Context Construct Truthfulness, believability, trustworthiness, objectivity, reliability Information seeker Heuristics Media-related, source-related, endorsement-based, aesthetics-based Interaction Content cues, peripheral source cues, peripheral information object cues Information object Information

  21. Influence of Each Level • Construct • Provides a particular point of view for judging credibility • Heuristics • Provides effective ways of finding useful information conveniently and making credibility judgments quickly • Interaction • Provides characteristics of information source or object on which a judgment can be based • Context: Provides boundaries by • Guiding the selection of resources • Limiting the applicability of judgments

  22. Key Challenges • Complexity and continuation of Information Seeking • For one information seeking episode, people use multiple media resources over time • From information seekers to creators • A new set of heuristics might be used as people engage in a variety of information activities including finding, summarizing, rating, creating, sharing • Encourage people to make effort for selecting and using credible information by emphasizing the consequences of bad judgments and decisions based on information

  23. Next Steps • Credibility Assessment in the Participatory Web Environment Project 2008-2011 funded by the MacArthur Foundation • Goals • To identify new sets of constructs and heuristics of credibility assessment have emerged in the participatory Web environment (Web 2.0) • To examine the relationship among online activity, user context, motivation, confidence, and credibility assessment

  24. Research Questions in Progress • To what extent people’s involvement in the participatory Web is related to their concerns about credibility? • How do people assess the credibility of user-generated content (UGC)? • When people post UCC (user-created content) or UMC (user-mediated content) on publicly accessible web sites, to what extent are they concerned about credibility?

  25. Soo Young Rieh School of Information University of Michigan rieh@umich.edu www.si.umich.edu/rieh

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