Factors Related to Learning Engagement

A new Pew Research Center survey explores these five broad dimensions of people’s engagement with information and finds that a couple of elements particularly stand out when it comes to their enthusiasm: their level of trust in information sources and their interest in learning, particularly about digital skills.  It turns out there are times when these factors align – that is, when people trust information sources and they are eager to learn, or when they distrust sources and have less interest in learning. There are other times when these factors push in opposite directions: people are leery of information sources but enthusiastic about learning. Combining people’s views toward new information ­­­– and their appetites for it – allows us to create an “information-engagement typology” that highlights the differing ways that Americans deal with these cross pressures.

Horrigan, J. B. (2017). How people approach facts and information. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/09/11/the-elements-of-the-information-engagement-typology/