Non-Obvious Connections Between Information Literacy and Online Payments

Abstract

The importance of information literacy in today’s digital world is increasingly emphasized. This is particularly evident in the context of using digital financial services. This article aims to investigate whether there is a relationship between information literacy and online payment preferences among a student population and whether there are gender differences in online payment habits. An online survey was conducted among students in Osijek examining information literacy and the types of goods they purchase and pay for through online financial services. Of the 408 respondents, the majority were female (86.27%), who were more likely to buy and pay for clothing, while men were most likely to make payments for particular features of video games. Differences were also found in the tendency to make online payments. Because no obvious linear relationships were found between reported information literacy and other variables, a neural network model with a multilayer perceptron (NN) architecture was developed to classify participants according to their reported information literacy level. The best overall classification accuracy of the NN was 73.17%. The NN and its sensitivity analysis revealed some hidden patterns that can help educational institutions develop information literacy and digital financial literacy programs for their students.