Factual accuracy and trust in information: The role of expertise

Abstract

In the past few decades, the task of judging the credibility of information has shifted from trained professionals (e.g., editors) to end users of information (e.g., casual Internet users). Lacking training in this task, it is highly relevant to research the behavior of these end users. In this article, we propose a new model of trust in information, in which trust judgments are dependent on three user characteristics: source experience, domain expertise, and information skills. Applying any of these three characteristics leads to different features of the information being used in trust judgments; namely source, semantic, and surface features (hence, the name 3S-model). An online experiment was performed to validate the 3S-model. In this experiment, Wikipedia articles of varying accuracy (semantic feature) were presented to Internet users. Trust judgments of domain experts on these articles were largely influenced by accuracy whereas trust judgments of novices remained mostly unchanged. Moreover, despite the influence of accuracy, the percentage of trusting participants, both experts and novices, was high in all conditions. Along with the rationales provided for such trust judgments, the outcome of the experiment largely supports the 3S-model, which can serve as a framework for future research on trust in information.

El papel de las bibliotecas en el acceso a recursos web de calidad

“…Sin embargo, el acceso a la información de calidad en internet presenta una serie de dificultades nada desdeñables, relacionadas en su mayoría con el hecho de que cualquiera puede publicar en la red sin pasar ningún tipo de filtro y que no siempre es fácil encontrar lo que se busca y discriminar la información de calidad de la que no la tiene. La información en internet, aunque en sí misma no tiene por qué ser menos válida, no pasa por ningún tipo de filtro profesional (bibliotecarios, editores…) y eso supone que sea mucho más fácil encontrar información de baja calidad (LUCASSEN, SCHRAAGEN, 2011, p. 1232.…”

Trust in online information

“…In order to better understand how people form their judgments on the credibility of information, the 3S-model was introduced by Lucassen and Schraagen (2011b). In this model, three strategies of credibility evaluation are proposed.…”

“…The aspect of information on which users base their trust is called credibility. Hence, trust can be seen as a property of the user, whereas credibility is a property of information (Lucassen & Schraagen, 2011b). In psychology, two key elements of credibility are defined: trustworthiness and expertise (Fogg & Tseng, 1999).…”

“…One particular study demonstrated the impact of three distinctive user characteristics (domain expertise, information skills, and source experience) on the information features used in credibility evaluation (Lucassen & Schraagen, 2011b). Initial validation for the proposed relationship between user characteristics and information features (in the 3S-model, explained below) was provided by means of an online quasi-experiment, which mainly focused on the influence of domain expertise.…”

“…We start by discussing and defining the concepts of trust and credibility in online environments. After this, the 3S-model Familiarity and Information Skills | 49 (Lucassen & Schraagen, 2011b) is discussed and revised, and related research is reviewed.…”