Young People's Trust in Cocreated Web-Based Resources to Promote Mental Health Literacy: Focus Group Study

BACKGROUND

There is a pressing need to create resources to promote mental health literacy among young people. Digital media is one of the methods that can be used to successfully promote mental health literacy. Although digital mental health resources are generally favorably perceived by young people, one of the essential factors in whether they choose to use these interventions is trust.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to explore young people's trust-related concerns about and recommendations for the cocreated mental health website "What's Up With Everyone" by using TrustScapes. Our aim was to use the findings to improve the trustworthiness of the website and to inform future creators of web-based mental health resources.

METHODS

In total, 30 young people (mean age 19, SD 1.509; range 17-21 years) participated in TrustScapes focus groups. Thematic analysis was carried out to analyze both the TrustScapes worksheets and audio transcripts.

RESULTS

Qualitative analysis revealed that the mental health website contains elements perceived to be both trustworthy and untrustworthy by young people. The relatable and high-quality design, which was achieved by cocreating the website with a team of design professionals and young people, was considered to increase trust. Creators' credibility also positively affected trust, but the logos and other information about the creators were recommended to be more salient for users. Suggestions were made to update the privacy policy and cookie settings and include communication functions on the platform to improve the trustworthiness of the website.

CONCLUSIONS

Factors perceived to be trustworthy included the website's relatable, high-quality design and creators' credibility, whereas those perceived to be untrustworthy included the privacy policy and cookie settings. The findings highlighted the significance of collaborating with end users and industrial partners and the importance of making the trust-enabling factors salient for users. We hope that these findings will inform future creators of web-based mental health resources to make these resources as trustworthy and effective as possible.

Assessing the quality and credibility of scholarly information resources: an investigation into information behaviours of university faculty members

Purpose

This paper aims at assessing faculty members' information searching patterns and the process of determining their information sources' quality and credibility.

Design/methodology/approach

This study administered an online survey through email invitation to secure data from 987 (55%) faculty members of both public and private universities of Bangladesh. The data were analysed using various descriptive statistics, and parametric and non-parametric tests such as Mann–Whitney, Kruskal–Wallis, and one-way ANOVA tests, to see the significant differences according to demographic characteristics at a 0.05 level of significance.

Findings

This study's outcomes affirm that most participants use Google Scholar and ResearchGate when searching/seeking information. Furthermore, for authenticating the credibility and quality of information, most faculty members tried to identify the information source and applied personal knowledge regarding information authentication. The statistical test results also found significant differences among faculty members' demographic characteristics (gender, age, experience and area of specialization) using the various source types. No significant differences were observed for determining information credibility in terms of faculty members’ demographic characteristics.

Research limitations/implications

As a limitation, this study only includes public and private universities in Bangladesh. This research could be more comprehensive if faculty members from other countries had participated in the survey.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to approach this significant but less addressed area to understand faculty member's behaviour in terms of determining the quality and credibility of information resources in Bangladesh.

Do We Trust the Crowd? Effects of Crowdsourcing on Perceived Credibility of Online Health Information

Crowdsourcing websites such as Wikipedia have become go-to places for health information. To what extent do we trust such health content that is generated by other Internet users? Will it make a difference if such entries are curated by medical professionals? Does the affordance of crowdsourcing make users feel like they themselves could be contributors, and does that influence their credibility judgments? We explored these questions with a 2 (Crowdsourcing: absence vs. presence) × 2 (Professional source: absence vs. presence) × 2 (Message: sunscreen vs. milk) between-subjects experiment (N = 189). Two indirect paths for crowdsourcing effects were found. The crowd-as-source path suggests that crowdsourcing negatively affects content credibility through decreased source trustworthiness and information completeness. In contrast, the self-as-source path indicates that crowdsourcing elevates source trustworthiness via heightened interactivity and sense of control. Although the additional professional source raises perceived gatekeeping on the site, it does not have substantial influence on credibility judgments. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Cryptocurrencies Perception Using Wikipedia and Google Trends

In this research we presented different approaches to investigate the possible relationships between the largest crowd-based knowledge source and the market potential of particular cryptocurrencies. Identification of such relations is crucial because their existence may be used to create a broad spectrum of analyses and reports about cryptocurrency projects and to obtain a comprehensive outlook of the blockchain domain. The activities on the blockchain reach different levels of anonymity which renders them hard objects of studies. In particular, the standard tools used to characterize social trends and variables that describe cryptocurrencies’ situations are unsuitable to be used in the environment that extensively employs cryptographic techniques to hide real users. The employment of Wikipedia to trace crypto assets value need examination because the portal allows gathering of different opinions—content of the articles is edited by a group of people. Consequently, the information can be more attractive and useful for the readers than in case of non-collaborative sources of information. Wikipedia Articles often appears in the premium position of such search engines as Google, Bing, Yahoo and others. One may expect different demand on information about particular cryptocurrency depending on the different events (e.g., sharp fluctuations of price). Wikipedia offers only information about cryptocurrencies that are important from the point of view of language community of the users in Wikipedia. This “filter” helps to better identify those cryptocurrencies that have a significant influence on the regional markets. The models encompass linkages between different variables and properties. In one model cryptocurrency projects are ranked with the means of articles sentiment and quality. In another model, Wikipedia visits are linked to cryptocurrencies’ popularity. Additionally, the interactions between information demand in different Wikipedia language versions are elaborated. They are used to assess the geographical esteem of certain crypto coins. The information about the legal status of cryptocurrency technologies in different states that are offered by Wikipedia is used in another proposed model. It allows assessment of the adoption of cryptocurrencies in a given legislature. Finally, a model is developed that joins Wikipedia articles editions and deletions with the social sentiment towards particular cryptocurrency projects. The mentioned analytical purposes that permit assessment of the popularity of blockchain technologies in different local communities are not the only results of the paper. The models can show which country has the biggest demand on particular cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Monero, Litecoin, Dogecoin and others.

Trust and Credibility in Web-Based Health Information: A Review and Agenda for Future Research

Background

Internet sources are becoming increasingly important in seeking health information, such that they may have a significant effect on health care decisions and outcomes. Hence, given the wide range of different sources of Web-based health information (WHI) from different organizations and individuals, it is important to understand how information seekers evaluate and select the sources that they use, and more specifically, how they assess their credibility and trustworthiness.

Objective

The aim of this study was to review empirical studies on trust and credibility in the use of WHI. The article seeks to present a profile of the research conducted on trust and credibility in WHI seeking, to identify the factors that impact judgments of trustworthiness and credibility, and to explore the role of demographic factors affecting trust formation. On this basis, it aimed to identify the gaps in current knowledge and to propose an agenda for future research.

Methods

A systematic literature review was conducted. Searches were conducted using a variety of combinations of the terms WHI, trust, credibility, and their variants in four multi-disciplinary and four health-oriented databases. Articles selected were published in English from 2000 onwards; this process generated 3827 unique records. After the application of the exclusion criteria, 73 were analyzed fully.

Results

Interest in this topic has persisted over the last 15 years, with articles being published in medicine, social science, and computer science and originating mostly from the United States and the United Kingdom. Documents in the final dataset fell into 3 categories: (1) those using trust or credibility as a dependent variable, (2) those using trust or credibility as an independent variable, and (3) studies of the demographic factors that influence the role of trust or credibility in WHI seeking. There is a consensus that website design, clear layout, interactive features, and the authority of the owner have a positive effect on trust or credibility, whereas advertising has a negative effect. With regard to content features, authority of the author, ease of use, and content have a positive effect on trust or credibility formation. Demographic factors influencing trust formation are age, gender, and perceived health status.

Conclusions

There is considerable scope for further research. This includes increased clarity of the interaction between the variables associated with health information seeking, increased consistency on the measurement of trust and credibility, a greater focus on specific WHI sources, and enhanced understanding of the impact of demographic variables on trust and credibility judgments.

Modelling trust formation in health information contexts

This study explores trust formation in the context of health information. Trust as an interpersonal notion, when formed in a vulnerable state, is a response or belief about how the trusted will behave towards the trustor. This study focuses on the process of assessing the trustworthiness of information, in a dependency state of information need, through the identification of the many factors influencing this assessment. A set of propositions are developed to suggest the criteria by which trustworthiness is assessed as well as the factors that influence these judgements. The proposed model is tested in a large-scale survey using a trust inventory with factor analysis to explore the constructs of trust formation. Structural equation modelling is used to explore the relationship among the identified criteria and their influencing factors. The resulting framework contributes to the understanding of trust formation in digital information contexts on the criteria of usefulness and credibility and further research into the influencing factors is recommended.

Students' trust judgements in online health information seeking

As one of the most active groups of Internet users, students and other young people are active users of digital health information. Yet, research into young people's evaluation of health information is limited, and no previous studies have focused on trust formation. In addition, prior studies on adults' use of digital information do not reach a consensus regarding the key factors in trust formation. This study seeks to address this gap. A questionnaire-based survey was used to collect data from undergraduate students studying a variety of disciplines in one UK university. The Trust in Online Health Information Scale is proposed, and it includes the following dimensions: authority, style, content, usefulness, brand, ease of use, recommendation, credibility, and verification. In addition, inspection of responses to specific items/questions provides further insights into aspects of the information that were of specific importance in influencing trust judgements.

Systematically retrieving research in the digital age: Case study on the topic of social networking sites and young people’s mental health

Online information seeking has become normative practice among both academics and the general population. This study appraised the performance of eight databases to retrieve research pertaining to the influence of social networking sites on the mental health of young people. A total of 43 empirical studies on young people’s use of social networking sites and the mental health implications were retrieved. Scopus and SSCI had the highest sensitivity with PsycINFO having the highest precision. Effective searching requires large generic databases, supplemented by subject-specific catalogues. The methodology developed here may provide inexperienced searchers, such as undergraduate students, with a framework to define a realistic scale of searching to undertake for a particular literature review or similar project.