The Role of Skepticism in Human-Information Behavior: A Cognitive-Affective Analysis

Even a cursory review of social science literature reveals a wealth of research into the role that skepticism plays in the forms of information behavior studied within communication, consumer psychology, education, journalism and media studies, and public policy, to name only a handful of disciplines. In much of this research, the effects of skepticism are found to be strong and numerous, and yet it seems that skepticism has not been studied to a great extent within the body of human-information behavior research. The goals of this paper are two-fold: the first being to establish skepticism as a factor which ought to be considered in cognitive-affective models of human-information behavior, via a large-scale overview of social science research; and the second being to show that a rational form of skepticism is a healthy trait to cultivate among information-seekers