The influence of structural and message features on Web site credibility

Traci Hong

Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2006, vol. 57, issue 1, 114-127

Abstract: This article explores the associations that message features and Web structural features have with perceptions of Web site credibility. In a within‐subjects experiment, 84 participants actively located health‐related Web sites on the basis of two tasks that differed in task specificity and complexity. Web sites that were deemed most credible were content analyzed for message features and structural features that have been found to be associated with perceptions of source credibility. Regression analyses indicated that message features predicted perceived Web site credibility for both searches when controlling for Internet experience and issue involvement. Advertisements and structural features had no significant effects on perceived Web site credibility. Institution‐affiliated domain names (.gov, .org, .edu) predicted Web site credibility, but only in the general search, which was more difficult. Implications of results are discussed in terms of online credibility research and Web site design.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20258

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:jamist:v:57:y:2006:i:1:p:114-127

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://doi.org/10.1002/(ISSN)1532-2890

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology from Association for Information Science & Technology
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().