Effect of Contact Information on the Credibility of Online Health Information

Author

Freeman, Kris S. ; Spyridakis, Jan H.

Author_Institution

Coll. of Forest Resources, Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA

Volume

52

Issue

2

fYear

2009

fDate

6/1/2009 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

152

Lastpage

166

Abstract

This study analyzed the effects of publisher contact information on the credibility of online health information. Participants (n = 144) rated the credibility of Web pages with a ldquoContact Usrdquo link more highly than pages that had no contact information. Other types of contact information (street addresses and email links) did not significantly affect the credibility ratings. Qualitative results indicate that the ldquoContact Usrdquo link served as a peripheral cue to credibility, rather than triggering conscious analysis. This paper also discusses how the effectiveness of credibility cues can vary according to reader characteristics.

Keywords

Web sites; health care; Web pages; credibility ratings; email links; online health information credibility; publisher contact information; street addresses; Biomedical imaging; Design engineering; Humans; Information analysis; Large-scale systems; Surgery; Surges; Credibility; Elaboration Likelihood Model; health information; information seeking;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Professional Communication, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0361-1434

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TPC.2009.2017992

Filename

4957841