Study On Impacting Patterns Of Herd Information Sources Selection Behavior By Users Of Online Health Information

Online Health Information Source(OHIS)refers to the health information channels and platforms used to provide necessary health information,daily health science,potential disease prevention,health interventions and other health services.Online health information sources enable the general public to easily obtain health information,provide people with daily health information references,improve people’s health literacy,popular health information,and promote the optimal allocation of health information resources,making important contributions.However,health information in the network environment is no longer simply dependent on information providers.The general public participates in the production and dissemination of information,and the quality of network health information varies.And due to the complexity of domain knowledge and the large number of online health information sources of different qualities emerging on the Internet,this has brought certain challenges to the search and selection of online health information sources for the general public.Health information is related to people’s life and health.How people choose high-quality online health information sources becomes the key to satisfy their health information needs and influence them to make correct health information behavior decisions.In this context,users need to have a strategic and autonomous choice of online health information sources to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of user information source selection.From the perspective of user’s cognitive behavior,this study explores how and how users perform herd behavior in the selection of information sources in an online health information environment.Therefore,the concept of "Herding Information Sources Selection(HISS)" is proposed.Herd information source selection behavior refers to an individual’s decision-making process of adopting one or more information sources in the face of uncertain environments or specific information needs,faced with multiple types of information sources,imitating the results of most people’s choices.This research takes cognitive load theory as the theoretical basis and deeply analyzes the behavior and specific forms of herding information sources selection in an online health information environment;using cognitive load theory and social cognitive theory as the theoretical framework to comprehensively explore users’ herding information behavior.The pre-motivation of source selection behavior and its backward effect.In theory,it promotes the innovation and development of research on information source selection behavior,and promotes the further deepening of the application of the herd behavior theory at the information behavior level.In practice,it helps to optimize the construction of network health information resources,reasonably guide the flow and flow of health information resources,improve the user’s information source selection effect and improve the efficiency of information source selection in the online health information environment,and help bridge the digital divide and achieve health.Maximize the value of information resources.The main structure of the thesis consists of seven chapters including introduction and main body.The introduction section mainly elaborates the research background and significance of this article,the current status and trends of relevant research at home and abroad,research plans,research ideas,research methods and main innovations.Chapter 1 is the theoretical basis.It mainly introduces related research on cognitive load theory,herd behavior theory,social cognitive theory,and habits,and provides solid theoretical support for research.Chapter 2 analyzes the herding information sources behavior from the theoretical perspective of judgment and decision-making process and the cognitive perspective on information seeking,it demonstrates the rationality and universality of the existence of herding information source behavior in the network environment,which further strengthens the phenomenon of herding information source selection behavior that this article focuses on.Lay a foundation for the detection of source influencing factors.Chapter 3 explores the antecedents and related influencing factors of online health information users’ herding information sources selection by using the method of Grounded Theory.First,semi-structured interviews have been made to collect qualitative data..Seven main categories were obtained through open coding,spindle coding and selective coding,and the influence relationship between variables was sorted out based on the investigation results of relevant theoretical literature.On this basis,construct a theoretical model in which the influence mechanism of herding information source selection behavior is rooted.Chapter 4 is the establishment of impacting factor model for users’ herding information sources selection behavior in online health information context.Firstly,based on the results of literature combing and rooted analysis,a higher-order model for selecting behaviors of crowd information sources is constructed,which is reflected by two first-order variables: imitating others and discounting own information.Imitating others refers to individuals observing other people’s selection decisions and following others to make the same choices in the process of information source selection behavior.Ignoring your own information means that in the process of information selection,you do not believe in your own private information and evaluation judgments,and are more willing to trust others’ judgments and choices.Then combined with the online health information users’ behavior selection factors from the crowd information source rooted analysis results,and related literature on cognitive load theory,crowd behavior theory,social cognition theory and habits,etc.,put forward research hypotheses and build the research model of this paper.Chapter 5 is the verification of impacting factor for online health information users’ herding information sources selection.A survey scale is designed in combination with the extant research and the context of online health information.The measurement model is tested based on the survey results,which mainly includes the reliability and validity test and the common method bias test.Then,the partial least squares structural equation model(PLS-SEM)is employed to validate the research model.Finally,it is found that observation of prior adoption,uncertainty of choice decisions and habits significantly affected the herding information sources selection,and the information needs and perceived difficulty in selection significantly affected the observation of others Behavior,information content complexity,and perceived difficulty in selection significantly positively affect the uncertainty of choice decisions,and health literacy significantly negatively affects the uncertainty of choice decisions.The habit significantly negatively regulates the effect of observing the behavior of others to the herding information sources selection.Chapter 6 is the research conclusion,theoretical and practical revelation,insufficient research and future research prospects.