TY - GEN
T1 - The presentation of health-related search results and its impact on negative emotional outcomes
AU - Lauckner, Carolyn
AU - Hsieh, Gary
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Searching for health information online has become increasingly common, yet few studies have examined potential negative emotional effects of online health information search. We present results from an experiment manipulating the presentation of search results for common symptoms, which shows that the frequency and placement of serious illness mentions within results can influence perceptions of symptom severity and susceptibility of having the serious illness, respectively. The increase in severity and susceptibility can then lead to higher levels of negative emotional outcomes experienced-including feeling overwhelmed and frightened. Interestingly, health literacy can help reduce perceived symptom severity, and high online health experience actually increases the likelihood that individuals use a frequency-based heuristic. Technological implications and directions for future research are discussed.
AB - Searching for health information online has become increasingly common, yet few studies have examined potential negative emotional effects of online health information search. We present results from an experiment manipulating the presentation of search results for common symptoms, which shows that the frequency and placement of serious illness mentions within results can influence perceptions of symptom severity and susceptibility of having the serious illness, respectively. The increase in severity and susceptibility can then lead to higher levels of negative emotional outcomes experienced-including feeling overwhelmed and frightened. Interestingly, health literacy can help reduce perceived symptom severity, and high online health experience actually increases the likelihood that individuals use a frequency-based heuristic. Technological implications and directions for future research are discussed.
KW - Health literacy
KW - Negative effects
KW - Online health information
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84877979142&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84877979142&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/2470654.2470702
DO - 10.1145/2470654.2470702
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84877979142
SN - 9781450318990
T3 - Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
SP - 333
EP - 342
BT - CHI 2013
T2 - 31st Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Changing Perspectives, CHI 2013
Y2 - 27 April 2013 through 2 May 2013
ER -
