HCC: Small: Website Design, Content, and Ideological Communication

University Of Oklahoma Norman Campus, Norman OK

Investigators

Abstract

This interdisciplinary research seeks to understand how website design and content influence psychological processes and attitudinal and behavioral outcomes on violent and non-violent ideological websites. A content analysis study will be conducted to identify and compare the level and nature of website credibility, interactivity, and persuasion tactics for ideological websites (violent and non-violent) and for non-ideological websites. Relationships of these variables to website usefulness for ideology dissemination and psychological processes such as identity expression, and dehumanization will also be examined. Next, a series of experiments examining causal influences of key website characteristics (credibility, interactivity, and persuasion) on website users' knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions will be conducted. These studies will compare the effects of these characteristics for ideological websites advocating violence versus non-violence. Relevant user characteristics (e.g., demographics, social identity, self-esteem, physiological arousal) will be captured for purposes of model building and testing for moderating influences. In these experiments, simulated websites will be developed to represent varying facets of credibility, interactivity, and persuasion. Human participants will be asked to navigate through these websites and respond to discussion threads, explore related links, fill out short questionnaires, and engage in other activities intended to assess key outcomes. Measures of knowledge, attitudes, and intentions will be assessed before and after website exposure for comparison. By leveraging an interdisciplinary approach to the growing number and presence of ideological groups online, this series of studies will lead to new theories and models for future research and dissemination of educational websites serving public interests. New knowledge will be developed by examining the specific facets of credibility, interactivity, and persuasion, which have not previously been studied with respect to ideologically motivated attitudes and behavior. An important comparison of violent and non-violent ideological websites will also contribute uniquely to better understanding the perceptions of and responses to ideologies through human-centered computing. This collaborative effort will also develop and demonstrate methods for future integrated research, for team members and the broader research community. Although the investigation and findings will focus on ideological website design and communication, the framework developed will also be relevant to studying the impact of website design on outcomes in other areas such as online education. The combination of theoretical and methodological backgrounds required to conduct the experiments will contribute to the research training of doctoral students and undergraduate research assistants in Psychology, Communication, and Management Information Systems. Findings from this research are likely to also have a number of practical implications for educating the general public about ideological websites and how they attempt to influence and persuade individuals who visit these sites. In addition, dissemination of the results through the professional channels of several sciences will achieve the broader impact of contributing to multiple academic fields.