Users more likely to accept information from online news sources they can customise, finds study

Users may be tricked into considering themselves the "source"

Platforms that offer users the ability to customise the information they read are more likely to be trusted, according to research carried out at Philadelphia's University Park.

Tests were carried out on users who had customised an online news portal to serve them news specifically tailored to their own stated interests, and feedback showed that users became "less systematic in processing the information" on a portal they had control over when compared to an unmodified one.

The research was carried out by asking 146 volunteers into four groups, two ‘self-sourcing' and designing their own pages for established information, while the other two groups were asked to build sites based on a provided template.

The participants who designed their own information pages were apparently more likely to agree with statements such as "I think the interface is a true representation of who I am" or "I feel the website represents my core personal values."

S. Shyman Sundar, a distinguished professor of communications and co-director of the media-effects research laboratory at the University, observed that those who don't "tinker" with settings on social media or other information sources will "scrutinise the messages and advertisements carefully".

He added: "However, if you are someone who customises or decorates your pages to project your identity, then you are more willing to buy into anything that comes into that space," said Sundar.

Sundar theorised that a consumer who is allowed to customise a platform may "transition" from thinking of themselves as that consumer, and considering themselves the actual source of the information.

"Historically, in mass communication, sources are journalists, editors and the media elites, but in modern digital communications, the user himself or herself becomes the source," said Sundar.

The research even went on to suggest that letting a user choose their own apps or even a username for an information source may be enough to cause such a reaction - even Facebook advertising has been theorised as more ‘trusted' by the type of user who tends to customise their feed often.