Analysis of the Impact of Age, Education and Gender on Individuals' Perception of Label Efficacy for Online Content

Online content is consumed by most Americans and is a primary source of their news information. It impacts millions' perception of the world around them. Problematically, individuals who seek to deceive or manipulate the public can use targeted online content to do so and this content is readily consumed and believed by many. The use of labeling as a way to alert consumers of potential deceptive content has been proposed. This paper looks at factors which impact its perceived trustworthiness and, thus, potential use by Americans and analyzes these factors based on age, education level and gender. This analysis shows that, while labeling and all label types enjoy broad support, the level of support and uncertainty about labeling varies by age and education level with different labels outperforming for given age and education levels. Gender, alternately, was not shown to have a tremendous impact on respondents' perspectives regarding labeling; however, females where shown to support labeling more, on average, but also report more uncertainty.