Saving Tiger, Orangutan & Co: how subjective knowledge and text complexity influence online information seeking and behavior

ABSTRACT

Besides others, subjective knowledge ‒ the feeling of being knowledgeable ‒ as well as the complexity of a communicated content have been shown to have an impact on different behavioral outcomes ‒ also in the field of consumer choices. However, it remains open how both factors influence subsequent outcomes such as information seeking, behavioral intentions, or actual choice behavior ‒ especially related to environmental issues. With a 2 (high/low subjective knowledge) × 2 (high/low complex information) between-subjects design (N = 87), we investigated the effects of subjective knowledge and complexity of an online news text about a specific environmental topic (i.e., palm oil) on behavioral intentions, online information seeking as well as on behavioral choices. Higher subjective knowledge raised the probability to volunteer for an NGO and the duration of time spent on a palm oil-related webpage. Environmental attitudes determined the general likelihood to engage in palm oil-related web search and the number of webpages visited. Text complexity did not influence the target variables.

KEYWORDS:

• Subjective knowledge
• behavioral intentions
• information seeking
• news text complexity
• environmental behavior

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Svenja Heber, Lara Hiller, Isabel Rackow, Elisa Weber, and Thilo von Pape for their assistance in conducting the study and coding the material.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Josephine B. Schmitt (PhD, University of Hohenheim) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychology, Media and Communication Psychology, University of Cologne, Germany. In her research, she is interested in information behavior, knowledge acquisition and media- and information-related self-efficacy [email: [email protected]].

Frank M. Schneider (PhD, University of Koblenz-Landau) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies, University of Mannheim, Germany. His research interests include entertainment and political communication research, communication processes and effects, and research methods [email: [email protected]].

Carina Weinmann (M.A., University of Mannheim) is a PhD student at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies, University of Mannheim, Germany. Her main research interests concern political communication and entertainment research, with a specific focus on the connection of both areas [email: [email protected]].

Franziska S. Roth (PhD, University of Mannheim) is a quantitative UXResearcher in the Product Design Department of Zalando SE. In her research, she focuses on the influence of entertainment experiences on information processing as well as the role of emotions in the on-site behavior of e-commerce users [email: [email protected]].

ORCID

Josephine B. Schmitt http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4689-3049

Frank M. Schneider http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1028-0854

Carina Weinmann http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8501-5484

Notes

1 Palm oil is a versatile and cost-efficient vegetable oil, which is used in diverse food products, cleaning agents, cosmetics, and biofuel. However, in the last years, environmental activist groups have rigorously criticized the usage of palm oil as the oil’s production and processing are accompanied by various environmental issues and societal problems. Nevertheless, public’ knowledge and attention for these problems seems to be low. While formerly producers of convenience could hide the fact that a product contains palm oil, they are forced to inform customers if the products contain the vegetable oil since December 2014 – at least in Germany.

2 Please see Kaiser, Byrka, and Hartig (2010) or Kaiser, Oerke, and Bogner (2007) for arguments why behaviors can be used to measure attitudes.

3 One person either ignored time out or did not recognize the information about time out given through the Internet browser.