For a von Neumann algebra M we study the order topology associated to the hermitian part M s * and to intervals of the predual M * . It is shown that the order topology on M s * coincides with the topology induced by the norm. In contrast to this, it is proved that the condition of having the order topology associated to the interval [0, ϕ] equal to that induced by the norm for every ϕ ∈ M + * , is necessary and sufficient for the commutativity of M . It is also proved that if ϕ is a positive bounded linear functional on a C * -algebra A , then the norm-null sequences in [0, ϕ] coincide with the null sequences with respect to the order topology on [0, ϕ] if and only if the von Neumann algebra πϕ(A ) ′ is of finite type (where πϕ denotes the corresponding GNS representation). This fact allows us to give a new topological characterization of finite von Neumann algebras. Moreover, we demonstrate that convergence to zero for norm and order topology on order-bounded parts of dual spaces are nonequivalent for all C * -algebras that are not of Type I.