Vertrauen in Gesundheitsangebote im Internet

This study offers a basis for the understanding of trust using health communication as an example. It analyses the preconditions for trust in a digitized world, describes the trust process and defines trust with a focus on the act of trusting, so that it can be distinguished from concepts like credibility.
The study discusses the relevance of trust as a transferal of responsibility to one specific online source and investigates how the interests of sources and scientific uncertainties influence trust. Experiments show that scientific uncertainties have a positive impact on the trustworthiness of sources and information under specific preconditions. While self-serving interests of sources lead to distrust, the competence of sources is the essential basis for trust. In an online context, trust turns into a special and rare situation because many recipients autonomously select information from various sources.