Deep thinking is hard work, so most people avoid it whenever possible -- including on the web.
The fact is that we humans are "cognitive misers."
Imagine if we were compelled to investigate everthing in depth, no matter how trivial. This compulsion would likely lead to mental illness or multiple graduate degrees (or even worse -- both!).
(Finally, after years of lurking here I post . . . )
As the lead researcher on the web credibility paper, I can say that we were a bit surprised and disappointed that people were so influenced by the design look of the web site. We'd hoped people would be more rigorous. But the data said otherwise.
Not *everyone* focused so heavily on the visual design. Some people in the study said design didn't matter. Yet the reality is that most people evaluate politicians and TV news in this same superficial way: style over substance.
We didn't include this variable in the study, but it's likely that people with "high need for cognition" (e.g., folks who spend weekends doing research or reading slashdot) evaluate sites differently than people who spend the weekend watching TV.
Beyond the psych variables, web cred evaluation also hinges on user task and context and a bunch of other factors that have never been studied. The web cred study we did with Consumers Union is a broad overview -- and certainly not the final word.
Slashdot Mirror
Ha!
This is my lab's site on web credibility, and the missssspelling is my error.
The irony is rich. (Maybe we should leave it that way . . . )
Deep thinking is hard work, so most people avoid it whenever possible -- including on the web. The fact is that we humans are "cognitive misers."
Imagine if we were compelled to investigate everthing in depth, no matter how trivial. This compulsion would likely lead to mental illness or multiple graduate degrees (or even worse -- both!).
(Finally, after years of lurking here I post . . . )
As the lead researcher on the web credibility paper, I can say that we were a bit surprised and disappointed that people were so influenced by the design look of the web site. We'd hoped people would be more rigorous. But the data said otherwise.
Not *everyone* focused so heavily on the visual design. Some people in the study said design didn't matter. Yet the reality is that most people evaluate politicians and TV news in this same superficial way: style over substance.
We didn't include this variable in the study, but it's likely that people with "high need for cognition" (e.g., folks who spend weekends doing research or reading slashdot) evaluate sites differently than people who spend the weekend watching TV.
Beyond the psych variables, web cred evaluation also hinges on user task and context and a bunch of other factors that have never been studied. The web cred study we did with Consumers Union is a broad overview -- and certainly not the final word.