INTENTIONALITY ASSESSMENTS AND THE EVALUATION OF ONLINE BEHAVIORByDavid C. DeAndreaIn many online settings, the content that appears on a webpage is created by both website owners and viewers. This study employed the folk-model of intentionality to examine the process through which people evaluate collectively created web content. Specifically, this study investigated how website owners can alter the extent to which they are held accountable for content posted by others by responding to the content. Results indicated that subjects perceived website owners who responded to content generated by others as wanting and intending to share the content to a greater extent than website owners who did not respond to the content posted by others. In turn, perceptions of desire and intent influenced assessments of intentionality and blame. Ultimately judgments of blame were associated with interpersonal evaluations of the website owners. The results illustrate the explanatory utility of the folk-model of intentionality in a new context, help clarify how components of the model interrelate, and underscore the potential for more parsimonious models of blame.
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