[citation needed]: An Examination of Types and Purpose of Evidence Provided in Three Online Discussions on Reddit

In a world where misinformation is abundant, and conspiracy theorists urge others to 'do their own research', how do people use evidence in online discussions? What types of evidence do they provide, and for what purpose? Decades of human information interaction research has focused on making it easy to share and discuss information online; and decades of information literacy research have examined how to promote critical thinking and evaluation. However, there is a lack both of systematic analyses of evidence use in online discussions, and the ways community norms affect use of evidence in those discussions. We present a mixed methods analysis of the use of three formats of external evidence (images, links, and direct quotation by using blockquotes) across three Reddit communities with very different norms. One focuses on promoting conspiracy theories, another on debunking them, and a third on personal view change. We investigate the use of these evidence formats within and between communities to understand how evidence is used in different kinds of conversation. Our findings support the design of online information tools that promote good evidentiary practice.