Browsing by Subject "Human information behavior"

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Navigating the information landscape: uncovering links between information perception, processing, and behavior
(2023) Utz, Lena; Gimpel, Henner
Digitalization has transformed how individuals access and share information, making some of it available anytime and anywhere through the internet, mobile devices, and social media. Digitalization has also changed how information is created and disseminated, enabling individuals to actively participate in the Information Age by creating user-generated content. The exponential growth of digital content presents both opportunities and challenges. While individuals can access information quickly and easily regarding a wide range of topics, it is essential to distinguish between truthful and false information. Fake news, especially from social media, has political and societal consequences, eroding trust in traditional media and institutions. Additionally, even if the information is true, individuals can be intentionally or unintentionally manipulated by specific characteristics of the information. Cognitive biases, such as the negativity effect and confirmation bias, influence how people perceive and process information. Individuals’ social environments, platform design, and individual characteristics also shape how they deal with information. To navigate the information landscape, it is essential to understand how individuals perceive and process information and how it can influence their behavior. This topic is a subject of the study of Human Information Behavior. To better understand the links, this dissertation builds on the Stimulus-Organism-Response model. This psychological model explains how stimuli (such as information) influence an individual’s cognitive and emotional state (organism), leading to observable behaviors (responses). Thereby, the dissertation distinguishes between primary and context stimuli, between cognitive and affective processes as part of the organism, and between psychological and behavioral responses. This cumulative dissertation aims to contribute to the understanding of how individuals perceive and process information and how information influences their behavior. For this purpose, it relies on literature-based theorizing and the analysis and interpretation of empirical data obtained from online experiments and surveys. Because false information tremendously influences society, politics, and every individual, this dissertation focuses on fake news. The first three chapters examine socio-technical interventions to combat fake news. Chapter 2 provides an approach to improving reporting behavior. It analyzes the influence of injunctive and descriptive social norms (SNs) on social media users’ reporting of fake news. The findings revealed that SN messages influence users’ re-porting behavior. While injunctive SN messages can serve as motivational tools and affect user reporting behavior in social media environments, the empirical results demonstrated no significant effect from the sole application of descriptive SN messages. However, combining both types of SN messages proved to be the most effective approach. Chapter 3 addresses the influence of the order of intervention on the short- and long-term perception of fake news. The findings showed that the order in which the intervention, consisting of warning messages and verified information, is displayed impacts the perception of fake news. When delivered after fake news exposure, such interventions can decrease the believability of fake news more effectively than interventions delivered before exposure. Chapter 4 examines how the fake news reader’s emotions influence the believability of fake news and whether warning labels can mitigate these effects. The results revealed that while low-arousal emotions in the reader could decrease the believability of fake news, high-arousal emotions did not affect believability compared to the control group. However, the presence of a warning label before reading the fake news could reduce its believability, regardless of the level of emotional arousal. Chapter 5 broadens the perspective beyond fake news. Using the example of online product reviews and information, it examines how different characteristics of information influence the user evaluation of digital products. The findings revealed that there is a “placebo effect.” This placebo effect depends on the source of information and negative placebo information has a stronger effect than positive placebo information. Furthermore, the timing of the presentation of the placebo information is important. Placebo information provided after physical sensory input had a stronger effect than information provided before it. In summary, this dissertation contributes to the understanding of how individuals perceive and process information and how information influences their behavior. The insights from this dissertation can support individuals and society in the fight against fake news. Furthermore, it uncovered the manipulative power of specific characteristics of information. The insights from this dissertation provide a foundation for future research and practical applications in the realm of human information behavior.