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Older adultsʼ credibility assessment of online health information: An exploratory study using an extended typology of web credibility
Author(s) -
Choi Wonchan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.903
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 2330-1643
pISSN - 2330-1635
DOI - 10.1002/asi.24341
Subject(s) - credibility , typology , heuristics , the internet , exploratory research , psychology , context (archaeology) , source credibility , variety (cybernetics) , internet privacy , computer science , applied psychology , world wide web , sociology , political science , paleontology , artificial intelligence , anthropology , law , biology , operating system
Abstract Credibility assessment is a crucial component in the process of peopleʼs health information seeking, especially in the web context. Finding “credible” health information from a plethora of information on the web may be more challenging for older adults, who have relatively less experience with the Internet. This article reports on the findings of an exploratory study of older adultsʼ credibility assessments of online health information. The data collected through semistructured interviews with 21 older adult Internet users in the United States were analyzed based on the extended typology of web credibility (Choi & Stvilia, 2015, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology , 66, 2399–2414). The findings of the study revealed that older adults paid closer attention to operator‐related credibility cues and heuristics when judging the credibility of health information on the web, followed by content‐ and design‐related ones. Also, the findings suggest that participants who were younger and used the Internet more frequently employed a wider variety of cues and heuristics to evaluate the credibility of online health information. Based on these findings, both theoretical and practical implications of the research and future research directions are discussed.