IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v12y2022i2p61-d784702.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessment of Factors Impacting the Perception of Online Content Trustworthiness by Age, Education and Gender

Author

Listed:
  • Jeremy Straub

    (Department of Computer Science, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105, USA)

  • Matthew Spradling

    (Department of Mathematics and Applied Sciences, University of Michigan-Flint, Flint, MI 48502, USA)

  • Bob Fedor

    (Department of Computer Science, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105, USA)

Abstract

Online content trustworthiness has become a topic of significant interest due to the growth of so-called ‘fake news’ and other deceptive online content. Deceptive content has been responsible for an armed standoff, caused mistrust surrounding elections and reduced the trust in media, generally. Modern society, though, depends on the ability to share information to function. Citizens may be injured if they don’t heed medical, weather and other emergency warnings. Distrust for educational information impedes the transfer of knowledge of innovations and societal growth. To function properly, societal trust in shared in information is critical. This article seeks to understand the problem and possible solutions. It assesses the impact of the characteristics of online articles and their authors, publishers and sponsors on perceived trustworthiness to ascertain how Americans make online article trust decisions. This analysis is conducted with a focus on how the impact of these factors on trustworthiness varies based on individuals’ age, education and gender.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeremy Straub & Matthew Spradling & Bob Fedor, 2022. "Assessment of Factors Impacting the Perception of Online Content Trustworthiness by Age, Education and Gender," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-66, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:12:y:2022:i:2:p:61-:d:784702
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/12/2/61/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/12/2/61/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Momsen, Katharina & Ohndorf, Markus, 2022. "Information avoidance, selective exposure, and fake (?) news: Theory and experimental evidence on green consumption," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    2. Hunt Allcott & Matthew Gentzkow, 2017. "Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election," NBER Working Papers 23089, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jonathan Albright, 2017. "Welcome to the Era of Fake News," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(2), pages 87-89.
    4. Hunt Allcott & Matthew Gentzkow, 2017. "Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 211-236, Spring.
    5. Alexandre Bovet & Hernán A. Makse, 2019. "Influence of fake news in Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kaline Pessoa & Cícero Luciano Alves Costa & Ana Cláudia Coelho & Ana Bastos & Isilda Rodrigues, 2023. "Use of Instagram as a Resource for the Adoption of Behaviors Related to Health and Well-Being of Young College Students: Associations between Use Profile and Sociodemographic Variables—A Cross-Section," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-18, February.
    2. Matthew Spradling & Jeremy Straub, 2022. "Evaluation of the Factors That Impact the Perception of Online Content Trustworthiness by Income, Political Affiliation and Online Usage Time," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-55, November.
    3. Cristina Burlacioiu, 2022. "Online Commerce Pattern in European Union Countries between 2019 and 2020," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthew Spradling & Jeremy Straub, 2022. "Evaluation of the Factors That Impact the Perception of Online Content Trustworthiness by Income, Political Affiliation and Online Usage Time," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-55, November.
    2. Ryan Suttle & Scott Hogan & Rachel Aumaugher & Matthew Spradling & Zak Merrigan & Jeremy Straub, 2022. "Deceptive Content Labeling Survey Data from Two U.S. Midwestern Universities," Data, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-10, February.
    3. Sven Gruener, 2024. "Determinants of Gullibility to Misinformation: A Study of Climate Change, COVID-19 and Artificial Intelligence," Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, , vol. 36(1), pages 58-78, January.
    4. James Flamino & Alessandro Galeazzi & Stuart Feldman & Michael W. Macy & Brendan Cross & Zhenkun Zhou & Matteo Serafino & Alexandre Bovet & Hernán A. Makse & Boleslaw K. Szymanski, 2023. "Political polarization of news media and influencers on Twitter in the 2016 and 2020 US presidential elections," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(6), pages 904-916, June.
    5. Lodh, Rishab & Dey, Oindrila, 2023. "“Fake news alert!”: A game of misinformation and news consumption behavior," MPRA Paper 118371, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Marius Dragomir & José Rúas-Araújo & Minna Horowitz, 2024. "Beyond online disinformation: assessing national information resilience in four European countries," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Yevgeniy Golovchenko, 2020. "Measuring the scope of pro-Kremlin disinformation on Twitter," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-11, December.
    8. Gruener, Sven, 2021. "Susceptibility to misinformation: a study of climate change, Covid-19, and artificial intelligence," SocArXiv x8efq, Center for Open Science.
    9. Kathie M. d'I. Treen & Hywel T. P. Williams & Saffron J. O'Neill, 2020. "Online misinformation about climate change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(5), September.
    10. Julia Cage & Nicolas Hervé & Marie-Luce Viaud, 2017. "The Production of Information in an Online World: Is Copy Right?," Working Papers hal-03393171, HAL.
    11. Leopoldo Fergusson & Carlos Molina, 2020. "Facebook Causes Protests," HiCN Working Papers 323, Households in Conflict Network.
    12. Tetsuro Kobayashi & Fumiaki Taka & Takahisa Suzuki, 2021. "Can “Googling” correct misbelief? Cognitive and affective consequences of online search," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-16, September.
    13. Dean Neu & Gregory D. Saxton & Abu S. Rahaman, 2022. "Social Accountability, Ethics, and the Occupy Wall Street Protests," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 17-31, September.
    14. Robbett, Andrea & Matthews, Peter Hans, 2018. "Partisan bias and expressive voting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 107-120.
    15. Henrik Skaug Sætra, 2021. "AI in Context and the Sustainable Development Goals: Factoring in the Unsustainability of the Sociotechnical System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-19, February.
    16. Fathey Mohammed & Nabil Hasan Al-Kumaim & Ahmed Ibrahim Alzahrani & Yousef Fazea, 2023. "The Impact of Social Media Shared Health Content on Protective Behavior against COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-16, January.
    17. Michele Cantarella & Nicolo' Fraccaroli & Roberto Volpe, 2019. "Does fake news affect voting behaviour?," Department of Economics 0146, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    18. Joël Cariolle & Yasmine Elkhateeb & Mathilde Maurel, 2022. "(Mis-)information technology: Internet use and perception of democracy in Africa," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 22010, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    19. Kerim Peren Arin & Juan A. Lacomba & Francisco Lagos & Deni Mazrekaj & Marcel Thum, 2021. "Misperceptions and Fake News during the Covid-19 Pandemic," CESifo Working Paper Series 9066, CESifo.
    20. Bartosz Wilczek, 2020. "Misinformation and herd behavior in media markets: A cross-national investigation of how tabloids’ attention to misinformation drives broadsheets’ attention to misinformation in political and business," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-22, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:12:y:2022:i:2:p:61-:d:784702. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.