”You’re a Doubter. You’ve Been Deceived by Satan.” : A Study of Information Use in Latter-day Saints Undergoing a Crisis of Faith

Abstract: Introduction. Crises of faith are major cognitive gaps. This investigation discerns the function of information use in responding to crises of faith in addition to exploring the information-related context of the LDS church. Mormons are thought to have an especially difficult time disaffiliating from their religion yet depend heavily on information seeking and use for their decision to do so. Method. Narrative analysis of 34 episodes of the Mormon Stories podcast that delineate church members’ crises of faith. Episodes were transcribed and coded for analysis. Analysis. Qualitative analysis was performed on the data to uncover the applicability of Chatman’s theories of small worlds and information poverty to the LDS church as well as to reveal the sense-making process involved in a faith crisis. Results. It was possible to see elements of small worlds and information poverty in Mormonism. Information was found to be used in response to faith crises. Conclusion. The LDS church operates an extremely closed information environment which hinders members’ information seeking on church matters. Ex-Mormons use information in response to crisis by factising new knowledge in addition to deciding to disaffiliate from the faith or from religion in general. This is a two years Master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.