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Session Submission Summary

Applications and Theoretical Perspectives on the Role of Cognitive Heuristics in Forming Online Credibility Judgments

Sat, May 23, 12:00 to 13:15, Caribe Hilton, San Geronimo Ballroom A

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

The Internet has become a critical information source in the last decade, offering a vast amount of information accessible to a large global community of users. However, this abundance of information has resulted in greater general uncertainty about the quality of online information. Traditional strategies to judge content quality (such as focusing on source authority) may no longer apply in the face of the characteristics of the Internet, such as the overload of unedited and unfiltered information, source ambiguity, and lack of standardized content quality and information sharing practices. While online users might rise to the challenge of finding high quality information by systematically evaluating the information they get, mounting evidence suggests that they usually do not engage in effortful information verification strategies. Rather, research shows that most users rely on quick and effortless strategies—heuristics—based on surface features to judge credibility. In the past few years research findings have led to the development of heuristic frameworks to examine online credibility judgments, which assert that the affordances of digital media nurture the use of cognitive heuristics for judging online credibility. To assess these developments, this panel brings together scholars to discuss theoretical, methodological, and empirical developments on the role of cognitive heuristics in the formation of online credibility judgments.
A variety of complementary cognitive heuristics backed up by the panelists’ empirical findings relating to online credibility are discussed within different theoretical frameworks. Sundar focuses on the heuristic cues afforded by the technological aspects of digital media and discuss them within the theoretical framework of the MAIN model as well as underlying methodological challenges of investigating heuristics. Sungur, van Koningsbruggen and Hartmann focus on the information content of online messages and examine the psychological distance cues in accordance with the Construal Level Theory. Flanagin and Metzger focus on the user, and discuss individual characteristics affecting information processing and the user interactions that take place in online social contexts. Aslan brings a critical review of the heuristic approaches to online credibility and proposes a novel understanding of heuristics as “reason to trust” following a systems theory approach. This panel aims to provide an important overview on the role of cognitive heuristics in forming online credibility judgments, fostering scholarly discussion to develop theoretical perspectives that can push our field forward in understanding perceptions of online credibility.

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