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to the choice, participants may become unhappy and do not response to the experiment
altogether. Future research needs to design a method to control the choice dimension while
manipulating responsiveness, or take into account the confounding effects while manipulating
both dimensions.
CONCLUSION
Perhaps the main conclusion one can draw from this study is that responsiveness of the
Web site influences effects of a government source and a commercial source in different,
unexpected ways. While it is yet be to explored on what attribute dimension of the sources that
responsiveness interacted with, the findings of this study suggested that both government and
commercial sources can benefit from differing levels of responsiveness in their online
communication. Although no difference in participants’ perception of credibility between the
commercial and government sources is potentially attributed to the study limitation discussed
above, it could also mean that a simple indication of a source in online information does not help
individuals evaluate the source and assess the quality of information. Therefore, there is an
urgent need to develop a more effective guideline for developers and content providers of health
Web sites to help individuals become literate on quality information on the Internet.
Convention