December 6, 2015 / Leave a Comment
by Tatiana
9. Website Credibility through Information Bias- 11.6%
People in this study talked about information bias when evaluating the credibility of the Websites they were reviewing. Sample comments related to information bias are below:
- This site is more commentary, and thus more opinionated. Accordingly, I liked it more, but the arguments are more disputable, and thus less “credible.” — M, 39, District of Columbia
- The headlines and editorial copy didn’t even make the pretense of being unbiased, something I think is critical for an organization or media outlet to call itself “news.” — F, 30, New York
- It is credible because the opinions contained therein are based on unbiased research. — F, 32, Pennsylvania
The comments on this topic were not surprising: Websites that are perceived to be biased are also perceived to lack credibility. As the data show, bias was highly prominent to users when evaluating sites dealing with news or sites providing opinions or reviews. In contrast, other site categories seemed not to trigger thoughts about information bias: search engines, e-commerce, and travel sites.
