“I Went Home to Google”: How Users Assess the Credibility of Online Health Information

Abstract

Purpose: Many Internet users search for health information but they struggle with assessing the quality of the information they find. By drawing on a multi-modal approach to data collection, this study aims to understand further the nuanced cognitive processes that people utilize as they acquire and evaluate online health information.

Design: We used a mixed-methods approach that includes surveys, interviews, and observations of 76 diverse adults of all ages in the Chicago area completing various health information-seeking tasks.

Findings: Most participants begin their information-seeking process on search engines. We identified the most popular credibility-assessment strategies used on the search engine results’ pages (SERP) as well as on websites. We also explored how the process of executing such strategies reveals greater and lesser savvy among users.

Research Limitations: While the sample size and methods limit its generalizability, this study included a larger and more diverse group of participants than most observational work, which results in data about a wider range of behaviors than is typical of such research.

Social Implications: Our findings showed that most of our participants could use additional education regarding credibility assessment of online health information. Additionally, since a great deal of credibility assessment occurs on SERP, search companies bear a particular responsibility for ensuring the quality of the information their results highlight.

Citation

Klawitter, E. and Hargittai, E. (2018), "“I Went Home to Google”: How Users Assess the Credibility of Online Health Information", Hale, T.M., Chou, W.-Y.S., Cotten, S.R. and Khilnani, A. (Ed.) eHealth: Current Evidence, Promises, Perils and Future Directions (Studies in Media and Communications, Vol. 15), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 11-41. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2050-206020180000015001