Persuasive Technology Lab captology.stanford.edu Prominence-Interpretation Theory Two things happen when people assess the credibility of websites: 1. The user notices something (prominence). 2. The user makes a judgment about it (interpretation). If one or the other does not happen, then there is no credibility assessment. The process of noticing prominent elements and interpreting usually happens more than once when a person evaluates a website, with new aspects of the site being noticed and interpreted until the person reaches satisfaction with an overall credibility assessment or until the person reaches a constraint, such as running out of time. Prominence X Interpretation = Credibility Impact An element’s likelihood of What value or meaning The impact that element has on being noticed when people assign to element, credibility assessment. people evaluate credibility. good or bad. Affected by involvement (motivation Affected by user’s assumptions & ability), content, task, experience, (culture, experience, & heuristics), individual differences & more. skill, knowledge, & goals. #52 Prepared for Luke Wroblewski ©2003, BJ Fogg. Commercial use not allowed.