Appetitive information seeking behaviour reveals robust daily rhythmicity for Internet-based food-related keyword searches.

Nicolas Scrutton Alvarado,Tyler J Stevenson

doi:10.1098/rsos.172080

Abstract

There has been an exponential growth of information seeking behaviour (ISB) via Internet-based programs over the past decade. The availability of software that record ISB temporal patterns has provided a valuable opportunity to examine biological rhythms in human behaviour. Internet search repositories, such as Google Trends, permit the analyses of large datasets that can be used to track ISB on a domestic and international scale. We examined daily and seasonal Google Trends search patterns for keywords related to food intake, using the most relevant search terms for the USA, UK, Canada, India and Australia. Daily and seasonal ISB rhythmicity were analysed using CircWave v. 1.4. Daily ISB data revealed a robust and significant sine waveform for general terms (e.g. ‘pizza delivery') and country-specific search terms (e.g. ‘just eat'). The pattern revealed clear evening double-peaks, occurring every day at 19.00 and 02.00. The patterns were consistent across search terms, days of the week and geographical locations, suggesting a common ISB rhythm that is not necessarily culture-dependent. Then, we conducted Cosinor v. 2.4 analyses to examine the daily amplitudes in ISB. The results indicated a non-significant linear increased from Monday to Sunday. Seasonal data did not show consistent significant ISB patterns. It is likely that two different human populations are responsible for the daily ‘early' and ‘late' evening ISB peaks. We propose that the major factor that contributes to the bimodal evening peak is age-dependent (e.g. adolescent, early adulthood versus midlife and mature adulthood) and a minor role for human chronotypes (e.g. late versus early). Overall, we present novel human appetitive behaviour for information seeking of food resources and propose that Internet-based search patterns reflect a biological rhythm of motivation for energy balance.

Highlights

The fundamental principle of adaptation is that the behaviours we observe have evolved, in part, from natural selection [1]
information seeking behaviour (ISB) did not show consistent seasonal oscillations in food-related search terms and indicates that the motivation for Internet-based food resources is relatively constant across the year
The results presented reveal novel human appetitive behaviour for food motivation on an international scale and the growing drive for Internet-based food resources shows predictable daily rhythms

Summary

Introduction

The fundamental principle of adaptation is that the behaviours we observe have evolved, in part, from natural selection [1]. Successful foraging behaviour has been favoured by natural selection, which shaped innate, species-specific decision rules that maximize energy gain [2]. The central place foraging theory aims to model hypotheses that concern animals collecting food and returning to a relatively fixed location [3]. Quantitative tests of foraging models generally include factors such as travel time, resource location and rates of prey capture/food intake. Appetitive behaviours include searching behaviours that are flexible and adaptive to the environment, whereas consummatory behaviours are innate and stereotyped [4]. Less attention is given towards the species-dependent appetitive behaviours that precede food intake and energy gain and the time scales over which the behaviours are produced. Internet-based datasets, provide a unique and unparalleled capability to examine large-scale food-seeking appetitive behaviour. We propose that information seeking behaviour (ISB) for food-associated search terms via Internet is a novel, human-specific appetitive behaviour that reflects food-related motivation

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