The unintended effects of hidden assumptions: biases on the internet
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520410570571 |
| Pages | 444-453 |
| Date | 01 December 2004 |
| Published date | 01 December 2004 |
| Author | Hernan Riquelme,Wang Kegeng |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
The unintended effects
of hidden assumptions:
biases on the internet
Hernan Riquelme and
Wang Kegeng
The authors
Hernan Riquelme is a Senior Lecturer and Wang Kegeng is a
Postgraduate Student, both in the School of Marketing, RMIT
University, Melbourne, Australia.
Keywords
Internet, Fraud, Bias, Advertising, Misrepresentation
Abstract
The presence of cues embedded in the online environment
influence how consumers interpret information and eventually
make a decision. These cues can be biased, thus affecting
decision quality. The aims of the research study were to identify
sources of biases of different web sites, to identify how
frequently they are observed, and to investigate to what extent
these biases are more or less present across different online
businesses. A sample of 93 Australian web sites was evaluated
along the presence or absence of biases in rating of stores and
products with which they deal, information on price and cost of
products, information on seals or logo endorsements, and paid
inclusion or advertising in search results. On average, one third
of the web sites that posted price information were biased. Of
those web sites that used seals and logo endorsements, about
half did not provide much information of what the logo stood for.
About 68 percent of shopping guide search engines do not
adhere to the recommendation of disclosing payment for
inclusion. Online businesses may want to consider the
implications of conveying incomplete information that may
mislead consumers.
Electronic access
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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
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Introduction
In the information age, the accuracy of
information provided by the internet, especially
because of its ubiquity, low access search cost, and
lack of regulatory bodies, needs to be critically
examined. The internet is a tool that is part of our
daily life, for some in the way they search for
information, and for others in the way they shop.
Similar to advertisers, online companies rely on
subjective and evaluative claims to differentiate
their web sites from competitors. Such practices
may constitute sources of bias, deception, and
fraud. Recently, monitoring agencies such as the
Federal Trade Commission in the United States
have informed about different ways in which
consumers can fall victim of deception or fraud
(Mintz, 2002).
The research study reported here refers to
information biases on a sample of 93 Australian
web sites, namely companies selling online only
(pure play or pure online business), clicks and
mortars (stores selling online and also at a physical
store), and shopping guides or directories. In
particular, we want to know to what extent
information such as ratings of online businesses
and product, rankings of results, price disclosures,
use of logos or endorsement seals are biased, how
frequently these biases are observed online, and
whether they differ across the online business
categories identified above.
The literature review section will describe, as a
starting point, empirical and theoretical research
related to deception on the internet. The second
part of this section will be devoted to
distinguishing between deception and information
biases. A third part of this literature review
examines research on information and human
biases.
Literature review
Grazioli and Jarvenpaa (2003) argue that the
internet is fertile territory for deception for two
reasons. First, the internet is a representational
environment (i.e. users make a mental
representation of the situation and product they
want to obtain), and second, the internet lends
itself to malicious practice as there may be no
tangible existence of the product or store being
represented. Users can find all sorts of web site
categories with the intention to deceive on the
internet: counterfeit, malicious, suspicious,
Online Information Review
Volume 28 · Number 6 · 2004 · pp.444-453
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 1468-4527
DOI 10.1108/14684520410570571
Revised article received 22 April 2004
Accepted for publication 27 July 2004
444
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