Health Information, Credibility, Homophily, and Influence via the Internet: Web Sites Versus Discussion Groups

Abstract

Despite concerns about online health information and efforts to improve its credibility, how users evaluate and utilize such information presented in Web sites and online discussion groups may involve different evaluative mechanisms. This study examined credibility and homophily as two underlying mechanisms for social influence with regard to online health information. An original experiment detected that homophily grounded credibility perceptions and drove the persuasive process in both Web sites and online discussion groups. The more homophilous an online health information stimulus was perceived as being, the more likely people were to adopt the advice offered in that particular piece of information.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to thank Priya Nambisan and Tracy Loh for their input in the development of this research. This research was supported in part by federal formula funds, Project No. NYC 131412, received from the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A previous version of this research was presented at the 56th annual conference of the International Communication Association, Dresden, Germany, June 2006.

Notes

¹Originally we planned to include a hybrid form of online health information as a control to examine the antecedents that affect the influence of online health information. However, due to the limited and unbalanced data points for this condition, we excluded the hybrid form from the data analysis for the effect of interface format on the influence of the online health information.