an unexplored area of bias

Recently I wanted students to examine if they could identify a fictional story on a website.  I used one "neutral" website with true information.  I then created two articles, one that was true and one that was false.  In the first website, I created a very "professional" looking website modeled after government and corporate websites.  These included real pictures, a fading, logos, etc.  The second one included clip art pictures and simple HTML.  I rotated it so that the first class had the "false" information in the professional style and the second class had the "false" information in the unprofessional style.

Next, I asked students to identify the bias in all three websites and then determine which website was false.  Despite identifying the bias in the text itself, students were still duped by the persuasion of visuals. The results turned out exactly how I had predicted.  In both classes, the 95% of the students identified the "unprofessional" site as the one containing false information.

We had a great dialogue based upon the following questions:

1. What does this say about how images and style manipulate what we think?
2. How does power and money influence the persuasive methods online?
3. How does font style affect how people view information?  How do colors manipulate how people view accuracy?
4. Does identifying the bias in a text necessarily mean that we are able to determine accuracy? Or
4. How could we modify this?

Students offered interesting information on modifying the experiment.  For example, some said we should compare online information versus text.  Others suggested we should change the region.  For example, would students believe something in London, England over, say, Jackson, Mississippi?  Another student suggested we change the language.  Still, another suggested we change the author's last name.  Would the author's ethnicity make a difference?

I seriously considered modifying this, doing some research and repeating it and then submitting it to a journal.  However, I have a hunch that researchers have probably explored these issues of bias before.  Still, it was a really interesting activity for students to realize that they are manipulated by subtle issues of imagery and its connection to status, prestige and wealth.