Health forums: Style of language influences credibility and trust

Young family searching for online health information © Lars König/Regina Jucks More and more, people are using internet forums as first place to look for information on health issues. However, the scientific medical information being provided there is often so complex that laypeople are barely able to form considered judgements on the content of much of the advice. One criterion which users apply instead in evaluating the information is the style of the language used. This is the result of the research carried out by psychologists at the University of Münster. In an online experiment, the test persons placed greater trust in authors in health forums - and also found their recommendations more credible - when the articles were formulated in a neutral style, rather than containing many positive adjectives. The study has been published in the "Journal of Medical Internet Research". Background and method: In an online experiment, the researchers showed articles in a health forum, formulated in different ways, to 242 test persons.