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Factors influencing trust in Wikipedia : an eye-tracking approach

Risto, Malte (2010) Factors influencing trust in Wikipedia : an eye-tracking approach.

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Abstract:The goal of this study was to gain insights into the overt visual attention behavior of users evaluating the credibility of Wikipedia articles and to compare it to verbal reports of important credibility cues. Furthermore it was investigated how fixation distributions are affected by the credibility assessment and a time constraint, compared to a control condition. A total of forty-three university students read six Wikipedia articles for general information while half of them also had to rate the articles for their credibility. Both tasks had to be carried out under a time constraint of two or five minutes. Eye tracking was used to obtain fixation frequencies on distinct article element categories (e.g. Introduction, Pictures or References). Comparison of fixation distributions showed significant frequency differences between element categories as well as between top, middle and bottom parts of text blocks. Partly these results seem to be in stride with verbal reports. No significant influence of task or time constraint was found. Furthermore subjects credibility ratings reflected quality differences between articles but again showed no effect of time constraint. The results lead to the conclusion that different article elements are approached with different viewing strategies and that verbal reports can help interpreting fixation distributions.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology MSc (66604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/60490
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