How could this lack of trust be overcome? Well, nearly 3 in 5 people consider an improvement if they could trust the answers they find online and 54% stated an improvement would be if the answers always came from trusted sources.
Moreover, 94% of the respondents said that they believe bad things could happen to them as a result of acting on inaccurate online information. These most common negative consequences are waste of time (67%), get a computer virus (63%), lose money (51%), risk of fraud (51%), damage to one’s credibility (36%), get fired (14%) and loss of spouse/relationship (9%).
“These findings demonstrate that people want online information to be more credible than it is today, and that current web services just don’t cut it,” said Mattias Guilotte , Mancx CMO and Co-founder. “Mancx offers a solution by giving people a new way to find the answers they need by matching questions with a trusted source, and allows them to exchange answers and money in a trusted environment.”
The reasons why Americans distrust information on the web are, as mentioned on Mashable, too many ads (59%), outdated information (56%), information that’s self-promotional (53%), and unfamiliar forums (45%).
The lack of interest in online information is however a reason to worry. It is true that not any piece of information posted online – as an answer or any other type of material – should be trusted. In fact, any internet user should make the time to verify a piece of information, following a simple rule, the golden one of journalism: check the information using three different sources.