8th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare

Research Article

Is it a Question of Trust? How Search Preferences Influence Forum Use

  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.4108/icst.pervasivehealth.2014.254988,
        author={Jamie Crawford and Cheng Guo and Jessica Schroeder and Rosa Arriaga and Jennifer Mankoff},
        title={Is it a Question of Trust? How Search Preferences Influence Forum Use},
        proceedings={8th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare},
        publisher={ICST},
        proceedings_a={PERVASIVEHEALTH},
        year={2014},
        month={7},
        keywords={health search social media trust},
        doi={10.4108/icst.pervasivehealth.2014.254988}
    }
    
  • Jamie Crawford
    Cheng Guo
    Jessica Schroeder
    Rosa Arriaga
    Jennifer Mankoff
    Year: 2014
    Is it a Question of Trust? How Search Preferences Influence Forum Use
    PERVASIVEHEALTH
    ACM
    DOI: 10.4108/icst.pervasivehealth.2014.254988
Jamie Crawford1, Cheng Guo1, Jessica Schroeder2, Rosa Arriaga3, Jennifer Mankoff1,*
  • 1: Carnegie Mellon University
  • 2: Pomona College
  • 3: Georgia Institute of Technology
*Contact email: jmankoff@cs.cmu.edu

Abstract

Searching for health information online is becoming increasingly common. The variety of peer reports and facts available online is also increasing. Yet little is known about how users come to trust the material they encounter. Our paper explores the impact of individual differences on trust in the context of information seeking behavior. Twenty-six people participated in an online study, which included a survey and a search. We developed two scales to measure trust in websites and trust in forums. We found that experience with chronic disease was related to increased trust in forums, while trust in websites stayed constant. We draw implications from our results and relate them to the literature on trust.