Abstract
Online health communities (OHCs) are a common and highly frequented health resource. To create safer resources online, we must know how users think of credibility in these spaces. To understand how new visitors may use cues present within the OHC to establish source credibility, we conducted an online experiment (n = 373) manipulating cues for perceptions of two primary dimensions of credibility—trustworthiness and expertise—by manipulating the presence of endorsement cues (i.e., likes) and of moderators’ health credentials (i.e., medical professional) using a fake OHC. Participants were predominantly male (60.4%) and Caucasian (74.1%). Our findings showed that moderators with health credentials had an effect on both dimensions of source credibility in OHCs, however, likes did not. We also observed a correlation between the perceived social support within the community and both dimensions of source credibility, underscoring the value of supportive online health communities. Our findings can help developers ascertain areas of focus within their communities and users with how perceptions of credibility could help or hinder their own assessments of OHC credibility.
Highlights
Long-term health management often lands in the lap of individuals who have to largely self-manage their health conditions
We ran a one-way between subjects ANOVA to compare the effect of moderators with health credentials on the expertise dimension of perceived credibility
We found a significant effect of health credentials on perceived expertise, F(1, 371) = 56.14, p = 0.000, η2 = 0.131
Summary
Long-term health management often lands in the lap of individuals who have to largely self-manage their health conditions. Online health communities (OHCs) provide users with guidance, information, and support they might need through self-management (Nambisan 2011; Nambisan et al 2016). Information available online, especially in the context of OHCs, is often user generated, and determining the credibility of this information becomes important. Most online communities have some type of moderation within them, but in OHCs with a large volume of users, moderation for each post prior to publication might not be feasible. Some identify misinformation and correct it, whereas others make the smooth functioning of the community possible. Just as their roles within the community differ, so do their qualifications. While some OHC moderators are health professionals, others are staff administrators with no identifiable health expertise
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