Juggling with Information Sources, Task Type, and Information Quality

Abstract

This paper examines how individuals judge the accuracy, adequacy, relevance, and trustworthiness of different types of impersonal and interpersonal information sources and how task type influences their evaluation process. 53 participants from diverse backgrounds recruited via Amazon»s Mechanical Turk performed four simulated information seeking tasks. This study analyzed the data collected from participants» self-reported information seeking experiences in online logbooks and follow-up semi-structured interviews with 23 participants by applying both qualitative and quantitative methods. The findings suggest that task type and information source type affect individuals» information quality judgment, and they perceive websites are more accurate than interpersonal sources, though the latter can be trustworthy. Moreover, their understanding of the type of information also affects their quality judgment. For example, they prefer factual information to opinions in some situations.