Differences In Information Seeking Research Articles

Call for Papers: “Psychological Perspectives on Science Communication”

Call for Papers: “Psychological Perspectives on Science Communication”

The influence of verbatim versus gist formatting on younger and older adults' information acquisition and decision-making.

Fuzzy-Trace Theory suggests that decision makers encode gist representations (bottom-line meaning) and verbatim representations (details) of information but rely more on gist, a tendency that increases with age. The present study examined implications for age differences in information seeking and decision-making by presenting gist and verbatim formatted choice scenarios. Participants comprised 68 younger and 66 older adults. Predecisional information seeking, indices of decision outcomes and recall, and relevant covariates were assessed. In line with theory, older adults self-reported and demonstrated stronger preferences for gist-based processing than younger adults did. Consistent with hypotheses, the total number of reviewed grid cells (including repeat views) was higher for gist than verbatim conditions, and this effect was stronger among older adults. Also, the proportion of unique cells reviewed and the accuracy of decision attribute recall were higher in the verbatim than gist condition and these effects were stronger among younger versus older adults. Further, gist formatting was associated with stronger use of option-wise information search, more value-concordant decisions (i.e., choices aligning with self-reported choice preferences), and decreased choice satisfaction, but these effects did not vary by age. Covariates, including information-processing preferences, partially accounted for these effects. Consistent with Fuzzy-Trace Theory, this suggests that information formatting and preferences modulate age differences in predecisional information acquisition: Depending on age, using either verbatim or gist formatting to communicate information can offer different benefits. Across age groups, however, gist formatting may facilitate value-concordant (and arguably higher-quality) decision-making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Information Seeking During the Pandemic: The Role of Age, Agency, and Fake News Concerns

COVID-19 brought rapid changes to the way in which people understand and process news, including both information and misinformation about the pandemic. This cross-sectional study was designed to examine persons’ experiences during the earliest months of the pandemic. The sample included 871 adults ages 20-79 (M=38.27 years, SD=11.40). Online surveys were collected between March and May, 2020 using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants completed a series of questionnaires, including a measure of agency from the Midlife Development Inventory, a questionnaire that assessed level of skepticism about the COVID-19 pandemic (i.e. fake news beliefs), a depression scale, a question about their level of anxiety about developing COVID-19, and questions about the frequency in which they sought information about the pandemic from different sources (e.g., TV, social media). A multiple regression using information seeking frequency as the outcome variable revealed several significant relationships. Specifically, younger adults, people with higher agency, and people with higher fake news beliefs all reported higher levels of COVID-19-related information seeking. In addition, there was a significant 3-way interaction between age, agency, and fake news beliefs. Disentangling this interaction revealed that older adults with low agency were least likely to engage in information seeking. There were, however, no age differences in information seeking in participants with high agency and fake news beliefs, but large age differences in participants with low agency but high fake news beliefs. Findings suggest agency is an important predictor of information seeking behavior, particularly for older adults with high levels of skepticism about the pandemic.

Comparison of COVID-19 Information Seeking, Trust of Information Sources, and Protective Behaviors in China and the US

ABSTRACT Due to the increasing amount of new information that is emerging about COVID-19, traditional and web-based information sources are commonly used to spread and seek information. This study compared differences in information seeking, trust of information sources, and use of protective behaviors (e.g., mask wearing) among individuals in the US and China during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 722 valid responses in the US and 493 valid responses in China were collected via online surveys in May 2020. Pearson’s Chi-square tests, independent samples t-tests, and multiple linear regressions were used to conduct the analyses. Results showed that US respondents accessed significantly fewer COVID-19 information sources, rated significantly lower levels of trust in these sources, and reported significantly lower levels of protective behaviors than the Chinese respondents. In both countries, trust in newspapers, radio/community broadcasting, and news portals were significantly positively correlated with protective behaviors. While trust of TV was significant in both populations, in China it was positively correlated, whereas in the US was negatively correlated, with protective behaviors. Findings from this study showed that coordinated and consistent messages from governmental officials, health authorities, and media platforms are important to promote and encourage protective behaviors.

Pandemic Communication: Information Seeking, Evaluation, and Self-Protective Behaviors in Vietnam and the Republic of Korea

Saliou (Eur J Epidemiol, 1994, 10 (4), 515–517) argued that pandemics are special kinds of crises and requires the public health sector to focus on: 1) reducing uncertainty, 2) rumor mitigation, and 3) ensuring the public reduces their risk of contracting the disease. With this as a backdrop, the central aim of this research is to better understand the connections between public information seeking, evaluation, and self-protective behaviors in the COVID-19 pandemic and focuses on a comparison between the Republic of Korea and Vietnam to provide insights into the influence of the individual, institutional, and information factors influencing people’s experience with COVID-19. Thus, there are two major contributions of this study. First, it provides a cross-theory evaluation of the factors that contribute to information seeking, evaluation, and self-protective behaviors. Second, the study identifies potentially critical differences in information seeking, evaluation, and self-protective behaviors based on acute disease reproduction in countries with a successful pandemic suppression history. Findings suggest that in countries where there are high levels of trust and satisfaction even small changes in the infection rates lead to different information seeking and self-protective behaviors.

Need for cognition and rumination: Alternate explanations for sex differences in disaster information seeking

While a long history of research in crisis communication has suggested sex differences in information seeking, little has addressed the underlying reasons why this may be the case. The current study examines information seeking behaviors in the time leading up to Hurricane Dorian, and suggests that these differences may be a function of ruminative processing tendencies. Sex differences in information seeking are moderated such that they attenuate at higher levels of rumination. Implications for our understanding of audience responses and emergency management are discussed, along with differences in sex role normalization that may play a factor in the observed data.

Frozen while I scan: Examining the impact of media dependencies, socioeconomic status and rumination on preparation behaviours related to Hurricane Dorian

AbstractBuilding on previous crisis and risk literature, this study investigates media dependencies, information seeking, preparation behaviours and rumination tendencies among individuals living on the Atlantic seaboard who were impacted by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Consistent with previous work, participants continue to perceive television, a legacy media, as the most important source of information—both initially and throughout the event. This study also analysed the extent to which information seeking, preparation behaviours and rumination tendencies may be related, drawing from recent work that has suggested that rumination tendencies may help explain sex differences in information seeking. Results suggested that those with higher rumination tendencies were more likely to perceive all sources of information as very important, with the exception of television, which was heavily relied upon by most participants. Rumination tendencies did not explain the variance in any of the three preparation behaviours examined. Overall, most participants had an emergency kit and an evacuation plan in place, while socioeconomic status positively predicted home preparation.

Cultural Differences in the Tendency to Seek Practical versus Theoretical Information

Western thought stems from the ancient Greeks, who were intensely interested in pondering abstract information and generating theories to explain natural phenomena. East Asian thought stems from the ancient Chinese, who focused on concrete information directly perceived by the senses and on generating practical information relevant to their daily lives. Would contemporary Western and East Asian people differ in their tendency to seek practical versus theoretical information? In a series of studies, we found that Canadians showed greater interest in theoretical information than Chinese, who showed greater interest in practical information. To explain the cultural differences in information seeking, we found that Canadians were more likely to endorse an intrinsic motivation for learning (focused on fun) whereas Chinese were more likely to endorse a utilitarian motivation toward learning (focused on benefits). And these differences in motivation for learning mediated the effect of culture on information seeking.

Communicating About Inter-Ethnic Unity: An Investigation on Differences Between Youths of the Three Main Ethnic Groups in Malaysia

In a multicultural, multi-ethnic and multireligious country such as Malaysia, inter-ethnic unity is considered both enriching to society and a challenge for government. A diverse population with variations in culture, language and religion is often perceived as difficult to govern due to the many different needs, values and expectations of different groups within a multicultural society. Malaysia is often lauded for the inter-ethnic harmony and stability of its society that allows the country to flourish economically. Though there is no violent conflict between the ethnic groups, a sense of national unity proves challenging to achieve as ethnic divides exist along political, socio-economical and geographical lines. This study was conducted to investigate how Malaysian youth participate in the conversation about inter-ethnic unity. Utilising measures of Communicative Actions in Problem Solving from the Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS), a survey was distributed among 575 university students from four institutions of higher learning in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance was conducted to determine whether there were any differences between the three main ethnic groups on the six different communicative behaviours pertaining to the issue of inter-ethnic unity. The results showed that there were significant differences in information seeking, information forwarding and information sharing. Among these behaviours, the differences between the Malays and the Chinese were most prominent whereby the Chinese showed relatively lower levels of information seeking and sharing compared to the Malays, and lower levels of information forwarding compared to both the Malays and the Indians. Keywords: Communicative behaviour, inter-ethnic unity, Malaysia, youth, STOPS.

Reed, K.Gender and Genetics: Sociology of the Prenatal. London: Routledge. 2012. 198pp. £34.99 ISBN 978‐1‐138‐82289‐4 (pbk)

Reed, K.Gender and Genetics: Sociology of the Prenatal. London: Routledge. 2012. 198pp. £34.99 ISBN 978‐1‐138‐82289‐4 (pbk)

Information behaviour of university students

This literature review attempts to give an overview of the field of university students' information behaviour. Students are generally one of the most investigated groups in the field of human information behaviour, but the field of students' information behaviour is difficult to draw into a coherent knowledge base. There are many studies of different aspects of information behaviour conducted over different groups of students. This paper presents some of the key conclusions and perspectives of selected studies. Studies in this field are conducted from the beginning of 1970's when the focus was on exploring the usage of library resources and services. During the last two decades the interest in students' library use and information behaviour in general has increased and the focus of research expanded. This review presents the literature in the following main areas: disciplinary differences in information seeking and use, the impact of curriculum and wider context including learning and teaching, effects of personality attributes, and studies that focus on use of electronic information resources. This paper also highlights research problems that authors suggest as topics for further studies.

Differences in Information Seeking Among Organizational Peers: Perceptions of Appropriateness, Importance, and Frequency

The purpose of this study was to explore the differences that may exist among employees when they are seeking different types of information (i.e., technical, referent, social, appraisal, normative, organizational, and political) from their peers in the workplace. Specifically, this study examined whether employees differed in the perceived appropriateness, importance, and frequency of seeking information from information, collegial, and special peers. Participants were 229 working adults who completed one of three versions (reporting on an information peer, a collegial peer, or a special peer) of a survey packet containing a series of measures. Results indicate that employees generally report that they seek information from special peers rather than from collegial peers or information peers.

Differences in information seeking among breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer patients: Results from a population-based survey

Objective There is much research describing cancer patients’ information needs and their use of the Internet, print media, and other sources to fulfill these needs. Yet little is known about whether patients with different types of cancer vary in their information needs and seeking behaviors. This study used population-based data to address this question. Methods A sample was randomly drawn from the list of patients with breast, prostate, or colorectal cancer reported to the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry in 2005. Patients completed a mail survey ( N = 2010); respective response rates were 68%, 64%, and 61%. Results Colorectal cancer patients reported consistently less information seeking than breast and prostate cancer patients. Multivariate analyses revealed that differences by cancer type were not explained by sex or other demographics, disease stage, or treatment received. These differences were most pronounced among patients with early stage cancer. Conclusion Cancer patients have myriad information needs and use a range of sources to satisfy these needs, but there appear to be important differences in information engagement by cancer type. Practice implications Understanding differences in information seeking among disease-specific populations may help guide future patient education and decision making across the care continuum.

Gender Differences in Negative Psychological Responses to Crisis News: The Case of the I-35W Collapse

Although past research suggests that media dependencies may be especially strong during crises and other times of uncertainty, little is known about gender differences in both information seeking and responses under these conditions. This study explores these differences using data collected from Minneapolis residents following the I-35W bridge collapse. Results do not support gender differences in information seeking, but indicate substantive differences in negative psychological responses. Recent research on rumination is offered as a potential explanation for these findings.

Marketing sustainability: Use of information sources and degrees of voluntary simplicity

The concept of voluntary simplicity (VS) is taken as a starting point to investigate consumers' use of information sources when making purchases of sustainable technological products and services. Differences in information seeking and sources consulted and trusted are investigated with a view to increasing the uptake of sustainable domestic technologies such as energy efficient fridges and washing machines over more grey alternatives. Clear patterns both in sources used and the information seeking process were found between different groups of consumers and priorities for purchase were also identified. The results suggest different strategies for marketing sustainable technologies to these different consumer groups.

Information seeking and sharing in design teams[27] (abstract only)

Information retrieval is generally considered an individual activity, and information retrieval research and tools reflect this view. As digitally mediated communication and information sharing increase, collaborative information retrieval merits greater attention and support. We describe field studies of information gathering in two design teams that had very different products, disciplinary backgrounds, and tools. We found striking similarities in the kinds of information they sought and the methods used to get it. For example, each team sought information about design constraints from external sources. A common strategy was to propose ideas and request feedback, rather than to ask directly for recommendations. Some differences in information seeking and sharing reflected differences in work contexts. Our findings suggest some ways that existing team collaboration tools could support collaborative information retrieval more effectively.

Differences and similarities in information seeking: children and adults as Web users

This study examined the success and information seeking behaviors of seventh-grade science students and graduate students in information science in using Yahooligans! Web search engine/directory. It investigated these users' cognitive, affective, and physical behaviors as they sought the answer for a fact-finding task. It analyzed and compared the overall patterns of children's and graduate students' Web activities, including searching moves, browsing moves, backtracking moves, looping moves, screen scrolling, target location and deviation moves, and the time they took to complete the task. The authors applied Bilal's Web Traversal Measure to quantify these users' effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of moves they made. Results were based on 14 children's Web sessions and nine graduate students' sessions. Both groups' Web activities were captured online using Lotus ScreenCam, a software package that records and replays online activities in Web browsers. Children's affective states were captured via exit interviews. Graduate students' affective states were extracted from the journal writings they kept during the traversal process. The study findings reveal that 89% of the graduate students found the correct answer to the search task as opposed to 50% of the children. Based on the Measure, graduate students' weighted effectiveness, efficiency, and quality of the Web moves they made were much higher than those of the children. Regardless of success and weighted scores, however, similarities and differences in information seeking were found between the two groups. Yahooligans! poor structure of keyword searching was a major factor that contributed to the “breakdowns” children and graduate students experienced. Unlike children, graduate students were able to recover from “breakdowns” quickly and effectively. Three main factors influenced these users' performance: ability to recover from “breakdowns”, navigational style, and focus on task. Children and graduate students made recommendations for improving Yahooligans! interface design. Implications for Web user training and system design improvements are made.

Conversations With Able-Bodied and Visibly Disabled Strangers An Adversarial Test of Predicted Outcome Value and Uncertainty Reduction Theories

Conversations with visibly disabled strangers entail unequivocally higher uncertainty and relatively more negative predicted outcome values compared to conversations with able-bodied strangers. Contrasting derivations from uncertainty reduction and predicted outcome value theories were tested by comparing observations associated with respondents’ separate conversations with able-bodied and visibly disabled partners. Four hypotheses were cast to favor predicted outcome value interpretations with respect to information seeking, three global features of the respondent's awareness of the partner's behavior, and the association of information seeking with nonverbal affiliative expressiveness and amount of verbal communication. Statistically significant differences in information seeking and awareness of the partner's behavior favored the predicted outcome value interpretation. Implications for predicted outcome value theory and interaction with visibly disabled conversational partners are discussed.

Age differences in coping with chronic illness.

We examined the correlation between age and six coping strategies in a sample of 151 middle-aged and older chronically ill adults. Coping strategies included cognitive restructuring, emotional expression, wish fulfilling fantasy, self-blame, information seeking, and threat minimization. Older adults were less likely to use emotional expression or information seeking than were middle-aged adults in their efforts to cope with the illness. These strategies were related to age even when numerous illness characteristics (e.g., physical limitations) were used as control variables. Interaction effects showed that older adults who perceived their illnesses as highly serious were less likely than were others to cope by seeking information, reconstruing their illness as having positive aspects, or engaging in wishfulfilling fantasies, and more likely to cope by simply minimizing the illness's threat. Consideration of related research studies suggests that the age differences in emotional expression may be due to age-related shifts in the types of stresses experienced, whereas the age differences in information seeking may be more strongly linked to cohort phenomena.

Age differences in coping with chronic illness.

We examined the correlation between age and six coping strategies in a sample of 151 middle-aged and older chronically ill adults. Coping strategies included cognitive restructuring, emotional expression, wish fulfilling fantasy, self-blame, information seeking, and threat minimization. Older adults were less likely to use emotional expression or information seeking than were middle-aged adults in their efforts to cope with the illness. These strategies were related to age even when numerous illness characteristics (e.g., physical limitations) were used as control variables. Interaction effects showed that older adults who perceived their illnesses as highly serious were less likely than were others to cope by seeking information, reconstruing their illness as having positive aspects, or engaging in wishfulfilling fantasies, and more likely to cope by simply minimizing the illness's threat. Consideration of related research studies suggests that the age differences in emotional expression may be due to age-related shifts in the types of stresses experienced, whereas the age differences in information seeking may be more strongly linked to cohort phenomena.