Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

289

Date

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Psychology

Committee Chair

Roger J Kreuz

Committee Member

Kris M Markman

Committee Member

Robert Cohen

Abstract

To date, there has been no research on the negative effects of using irony on the Web. This research explores the effect of irony on the perceived credibility of education, government, blog, and microblogging Web sites. In Experiment 1, government and educational Web sites were shown to have high perceptions of credibility, and low perceptions of irony. Past research suggests that users should not be able to recognize irony on education or government Web sites, because the site iteself is not ironic. However, Experiment 3 showed that irony was recognized on all sites. This recognized irony lowers the perieved credibility of education and government Web sites. Contrary to predictions, the blog and mircroblogging sites that do not incorporate irony did not have higher ratings of credibility.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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