Search results

Research on factors influencing information credibility judgment is increasing, whereas their findings are mixed. This study conducted a meta-analysis of 85 empirical studies, synthesizing the effects of 12 frequently examined source, content, channel, and receiver factors on information credibility perception. Results reveal that message quality, source credibility, and message fluency have large correlations with credibility perception, while other factors show small-to-medium correlations. Personal topic knowledge does not have a significant relationship with credibility perception. Gender composition, information channel, topic, and research method significantly moderate the aggregated relationships. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Prior studies have investigated the antecedents of Health Information Seeking (HIS) using different theoretical frameworks, whereas the inconsistencies in the reported findings warrant a more comprehensive synthesis of this body of knowledge. This meta-analysis identified 12 major antecedents of HIS from six widely used information seeking models examining HIS, developed an organizing framework that segmented current antecedents into cognitive, affective, sociocultural, and information carrier categories, and compared their associations with HIS by meta-analyzing 89 empirical studies ( N = 62,957). Results showed that seeking-related subjective norms and information utility yielded the strongest associations with HIS, whereas cognitive and affective factors demonstrated weaker associations with HIS. Illness types, information-seeking channels, and sampling methods significantly moderated the associations between some predictors and HIS. Implications and directions for future research were discussed.