Abstract

This study investigates how people conduct elaboration and develops confidence in healthcare and travel knowledge in Yahoo! Kimo Knowledge+, the most popular online question-answering community in Taiwan. A context analysis based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model shows that people seeking for healthcare knowledge rely on both central route and peripheral route cues to choose best knowledge (answers), while those seeking travel knowledge rely more on peripheral route cues. In addition, personal relevance influences the amount of central route cues for those seeking for travel knowledge. Further analysis shows that hyperlinks play a critical role in people’s choice, reflecting the increasing importance of the Internet as the primary form of transactive memory. Implications to the design of online knowledge platforms are discussed.

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