Comparative Optimism in Online Credibility Evaluation Among Parents and Children

Abstract

This study investigates comparative optimism—whereby people perceive themselves as relatively invulnerable to risks as compared to others—in the evaluation of online information credibility by children and their parents. Results of a representative national survey of Internet users revealed significant antecedents of children's and parents' comparative optimism, including demographic characteristics, cognitive thinking style, and perceived self-efficacy. Parental optimism was also found to relate to the mediation strategies used to regulate children's Internet use, and comparative optimism in children was associated with tendencies to believe online information and specific evaluation behavior. Findings are considered in terms of their theoretical implications and with regard to the role of parents in children's digital information literacy development.

Note

Notes

¹ Data for this study were collected in June 2009. There is no reason to believe that comparative optimism, which is understood to be an enduring trait of human nature, or strategies people use to evaluate credibility, which have been shown to be rather stable across time and platform, would be any different today. Nor has the type or format of information online changed radically or in any critical ways since data collection for this study was conducted. That said, this study is the first in what we hope will become an ongoing stream of research on this issue, as it has such important implications for digital literacy.

Additional information

Funding

Support was received from John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Miriam Metzger

Miriam Metzger (Ph.D., Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California) is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Her research interests focus on trust and privacy in online communication.

Andrew Flanagin

Andrew Flanagin (Ph.D., Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California) is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California at Santa Barbara. His research focuses on the ways in which information and communication technologies structure and extend human interaction, with particular emphasis on the processes of organizing and information evaluation and sharing.

Elmie Nekmat

Elmie Nekmat (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is an assistant professor in Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore. His research focuses on media effects and the social-psychological processes and effects in computer-mediated communication.