| To understand more fully how individuals and groups derive satisfaction from information, it is important to identify the information source preferences they apply in information-seeking and decision-making. Eight informal propositions drove the structure and underlying logic of this study, forming a preliminary outline of a theory of information source preference profiles and their influence on information satisfaction.; The research literature has tended to evaluate information sources in isolation, without considering the value of particular sources in concert with others or the effects of combinations of supporting (i.e., positive) and conflicting (i.e., negative) information. This thesis employed Social Judgment Analysis (SJA) to identify the information judgment preferences held by three professional groups (i.e., education, law enforcement, and healthcare) for selected information sources: word of mouth, expert oral advice, Internet, print news, non-fiction books and radio/television news. The research was designed as an hypothesis-generating exploratory study employing a purposive sample (n = 90) and generated 13 empirically-supported, testable hypotheses about user satisfaction with information sources. The SJA judgment functions revealed the influences of volume and polarity (i.e., positive vs. negative information) on information satisfaction. |
