How Dual-Process Theories Provide Insights To Online Cues

Online activities now occupy more of our time than ever before, increasing our struggle with online information overload. Online cues, such as icons, images, and badges have gained importance as these cues can act as effective decision-making aids for overcoming information overload. While such cues may improve decision-making efficiency, psychological evidence suggests that decisions made with such cues can be shallow, irrational, and unconscious. This ERF paper addresses these conflicting outcomes, by conducting a literature review on cues used in online opinion platforms using dual- process decision-making theories. Through this review, cues and outcomes have been organized into categories, and research gaps and theoretical inconsistencies have been documented. Contributions include describing influential online cues based on context and theory and identifying specific research opportunities with the complicating roles of online cues and the relationships between cues and argument quality.