Determinanten der Selektion und Einstellungsbildung bei der Rezeption von Wissenschafts-informationen im Internet

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The Internet provides a great deal of content on science-related issues. This leads to a multitude of possibilities to collect information, but may also cause difficulties in identifying relevant and credible pieces of content and coming to an informed stance. Against this background, this project examines how laypersons deal with science-related information in Web 2.0 applications such as blogs. Based on models of persuasion (e.g., Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) and findings of the first two project phases, the studies address remaining questions regarding attitude formation and the influence of reader comments and ratings (due to the increased importance of user-generated feedback in Web 2.0 settings, see Walther & Jang, 2012). In particular, we will investigate under which circumstances conflicting evidence and the complexity of current scientific debates are represented in readers' attitudes. For this purpose, the assessment will include potential ambivalence and the certainty of attitudes (Wagner, Brinol & Petty, 2012). In this context, two experimental studies investigate the influence of message complexity (message sidedness, with a comparison of two-sided framing and actual two-sidedness); users' need for cognition and epistemological beliefs are included as moderating variables. Two further studies examine the effects of user comments providing counterarguments against the message of the main article. These are either comments with personal experiences (exemplars), which may offer further information on the topic but may also lead to biased perceptions of the opinion climate, or comments referring to empirical evidence. The influence of these two types of comments is tested in combination with helpfulness ratings given by other users. Based on these findings, a recently suggested model on selection and processing of online science information (Krämer & Winter, submitted) will be extended and tested in two experiments with a new exemplary topic (under consideration of different reading goals and with an additional assessment of behavioral intentions).