Reading is believing? a study of the relationship between website readability and online credibility

• Main Author: Cormack, David
• Other Authors: Mallin, Barry (Psychology)
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: online health information; readability; online credibility; involvement
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/32037

More and more parents are turning to the Internet for information about their children’s health and wellbeing. With all of the conflicting information online, how do parents decide which health websites to believe and follow? One website element the impact of which is not well understood is the readability level of content presented. An online survey was conducted with parents and university students in an attempt to isolate the relationships between website readability and credibility judgements and intentions to act. Parents and students were randomly assigned to view and evaluate one of three mock websites about Fragile X syndrome with identical content but differing readability levels. It was predicted that users would find websites that were easier to understand more credible and they would in turn then be more likely to act on the information from simple readability websites. Contrary to the author’s hypothesis, students were more likely to follow recommendations on websites written at a complex readability level, when they were engaged with the website. Results also showed that readability was less of an influence on credibility than were the parents’ pre-experiment knowledge of the disorder. === February 2017