To click or not to click: investigating conflict detection and sourcing in a multiple document hypertext environment
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To click or not to click: investigating conflict detection and sourcing in a multiple document hypertext environment Pablo Delgado1 · Elisabeth Stang Lund2 · Ladislao Salmerón1 · Ivar Bråten2
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract This study investigated whether accessing conflicting claims in other documents by means of hyperlinks embedded within currently read documents may facilitate conflict detection and source-content integration. Norwegian undergraduates (n = 85) read multiple conflicting documents on a controversial health-related issue, with half of the conflicting claims across documents hyperlinked and the other half not. Moreover, half of the participants were told that they would get more information by clicking on the links (weak prompting condition) while the other half were additionally told that clicking on the links was necessary to get a more complete understanding of the issue (strong prompting condition). Results indicated that the extent to which participants accessed conflicting claims in other documents via the hyperlinks was positively related to their detection of cross-document conflicts as well as their integration of source-content information. A mediational analysis indicated that conflict detection mediated the effect of accessing conflicting claims via the hyperlinks on source-content integration. No relationship was found between the prompting condition and participants’ selection of the hyperlinks. The theoretical significance as well as the practical value of our findings are discussed. Keywords Multiple document literacy · Conflicting information · Sourcing · Hypertext · Hyperlinks When people use multiple information resources to learn about a particular situation, issue, or phenomenon, attention to the sources of information is often crucial (Bråten, Stadtler, & Salmerón, 2018; Magliano, McCrudden, Rouet, & Sabatini, 2018). Especially when people read about complex, controversial, and * Ladislao Salmerón [email protected] 1
University of Valencia, Avd. Blasco Ibáñez, 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain
2
University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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unfamiliar issues, such as the potential health effects of sun exposure (Moan, Baturaite, Juzeniene, & Porojnicu, 2012), they may have a hard time determining the accuracy and trustworthiness of differing knowledge claims directly (Stadtler & Bromme, 2014). In such situations, it may therefore be highly pertinent to take features of the sources into consideration, for example, the author’s affiliation and credentials, the document type (e.g., a scholarly article or an op-ed), the venue, and the date of publication (e.g., Bråten, McCrudden, Stang Lund, Brante, & Strømsø, 2018; McCrudden, Stenseth, Bråten, & Strømsø, 2016; Stadtler & Bromme, 2014). Such consideration of source information, termed “sourcing” within the area of multiple document literacy research (Bråten, Stadtler, & Salmerón, 2018; Scharrer & Salmerón, 2016; Wineburg, 1991), allows readers to evaluate the potential accuracy and trust
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