The Role of Cognitive Heuristics in Online Truth judgments: A Construal Level Approach

• In Event: Applications and Theoretical Perspectives on the Role of Cognitive Heuristics in Forming Online Credibility Judgments

Abstract

The Internet has become a major source of information, but often there is uncertainty regarding information veracity. Evidence suggests that instead of effortful verifications, online users rely on cognitive heuristics to judge the credibility of information they encounter. The construal level theory of psychological distance (CLT), a well-established psychological theory involving heuristic processes, is applied to examine users’ online credibility judgments. Two experiments in the context of Twitter showed that users have higher truth perceptions when tweets involved congruent as compared to incongruent psychological distance information cues. Specifically, participants judged tweets as more likely and less surprising when the hypotheticality of tweet content (likely vs. unlikely) and spatial distance of tweet location and source (close vs. far) involved proximally congruent information. The impact of this finding and the general application of the CLT to the heuristic approaches to online credibility literature are discussed.

Authors

• Hande Sungur, VU Amsterdam

• Guido M Van Koningsbruggen, VU U Amsterdam

• Tilo Hartmann, VU University Amsterdam