General Information Seeking Research Articles

Does usage scenario matter? Investigating user perceptions, attitude and support for policies towards ChatGPT

ChatGPT's impressive performance enables users to increasingly apply it to a variety of scenarios. However, previous studies investigating people's perceptions or attitudes towards ChatGPT have not considered the effects of the usage scenario. This paper aims to extract the representative scenarios of ChatGPT, explore differences in user perceptions for each scenario, and provide a policy support model. We extracted five scenarios by collecting 50 open-ended responses from Mturk, including “Scenario 1: Daily life tasks,” “Scenario 2: Enhance efficiency (work and education purposes),” “Scenario 3: Replace manpower (work and education purposes),” “Scenario 4: Browsing and general information seeking,” “Scenario 5: Enjoyment.” Subsequently, we identified four key variables to be tested (i.e., information quality, perceived risk, attitude, and policy support), and classified usage scenarios into different categories according to the perception variables measured via an online survey (n = 514). Finally, we built a model including the four variables and tested it for each scenario. The results of this study provide deep insights into user perceptions towards ChatGPT in distinct scenarios.

Exploring the effects of health information seeking on e-satisfaction in online health communities: an empirical investigation

BackgroundOnline health communities (OHCs) are becoming effective platforms for people to seek health information. Existing studies divide health information into general and specific information in OHCs. However, few studies discuss the effects of different types of information seeking in OHCs on users’ electronic satisfaction (e-satisfaction).ObjectiveThis study explores the effects of general and specific information seeking on users’ e-satisfaction with OHCs through the mediating roles of perceived benefits and costs drawing on the social information processing theory and the social exchange theory.MethodsThis study conducted an online survey to collected data from individuals who used OHCs to seek information. The structural equation model was used to analyze the collect data and the research model. Specifically, this study examined the common method bias and conducted a robustness check.ResultsResults show that general and specific information seeking affect e-satisfaction through the mediating roles of perceived benefits and costs. An interesting result is that general information seeking has a stronger effect on e-satisfaction than specific information seeking.ConclusionsThis study suggests that e-satisfaction should be further enhanced by information seeking as online healthcare practices evolve and change. Managers of OHCs should focus on increasing users’ perceived benefits, thereby increasing their e-satisfaction. Besides, this study discusses implications, limitations, and future research directions.

Utilizing Google trends to monitor coronavirus vaccine interest and hesitancies

IntroductionVaccine hesitancy remains a serious challenge for ending the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Digital media has played an immense role in the spread of information during the pandemic. One method to gauge public interest in COVID-19 related information is to examine patterns of online search queries. MethodsGoogle Trends (GT) was used to analyze results for search terms relating to COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, information, and accessibility from October 1st, 2020 to May 27th, 2021. GT allows you to compare multiple queries at one time. The resultant relative search volumes (RSVs)range from 0 to 100. The search term andpoint in time on the graph that has the greatest search volume is given a score of 100 and all other terms and times are given values relative to that maximum. Search interest peaks were analyzed by subgroups (misinformation, information seeking, and access seeking) and across key time points throughout the pandemic. ResultsGT analysis revealed that search interest related to vaccine misinformation, general information, and access seeking changed in relation to events taking place throughout the pandemic. The most commonly searched terms in each subgroup were: “Covid vaccine infertility”, “Covid vaccine side effects”, and “Covid vaccine appointment”. Searches related to misinformation peaked in December 2020. Search terms in the general information category peaked in April 2021. RSVs for access seeking terms peaked in March 2021 and have decreased since April 2021. ConclusionMisinformation RSVs were highest after FDA authorization and have multiple repeated spikes after subsequent vaccine announcements. General information seeking terms peaked concurrently with increased vaccination uptake in the United States. Search interest has decreased with wider vaccine availability, despite many individuals in the United States remaining unvaccinated. GT can be used to monitor trends in public attitudes and misinformation regarding COVID-19 vaccines and further target education.

Age Differences in the Consumption and Avoidance of COVID-19 Information

Staying informed about COVID-19 is crucial to maintaining public health. Although older adults are at increased risk of complications, recent data (Global Web Index, 2020) suggest that they are less likely to seek out information about COVID-19. This is consistent with prior evidence indicating that information seeking is negatively associated with age (Mata & Nunes, 2010). However, it remains unclear whether older adults merely fail to seek information or intentionally avoid information. In response, we examined whether age is associated with general information seeking and deliberate information avoidance in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on previous work indicating age-related shifts in motivational priorities (Carstensen, 2006) we also examined whether avoidance motives differ by age. In a pre-registered online study, an adult lifespan sample (N=500, Mage=49.90, 51% female, 67% non-Hispanic White) completed self-report measures of media consumption, information avoidance, and avoidance motives with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, we measured behavioral information avoidance by allowing participants to opt out of receiving valid COVID-19 information. As predicted, age was associated with decreased media consumption (p<.001) and higher information avoidance about COVID-19 on the behavioral measure (p<.01). Self-reported information avoidance, in contrast, was highest among younger adults (p<.05). Further, with the exception of concerns about trustworthiness, older adults were less likely than younger adults to endorse various information avoidance motives (ps<.05). Thus, although information seeking is lower and behavioral information avoidance about COVID-19 is higher in later life, this cannot be traced to explicit intentions or select motives.

"Learning for the Rise of China": Exploring Uses and Gratifications of State-Owned Online Platform

In January 2019, the Chinese Communist Party launched the online platform XueXi QiangGuo, which translates into "Learning for the Rise of China." Within two months, XueXi became the top-downloaded item of the month on Apple's App Store in China. In response, we conducted an interview study with 28 active XueXi users to investigate their uses and gratifications of this state-owned online platform. Our results reveal seven key motivations: compliance, self-status seeking, general information seeking, job support, entertainment, patriotism, and learning. This state-owned platform introduced a new model for official information dissemination and political communication through direct surveillance and monitoring, leveraging and fostering emotional attachment, and offering heterogeneous apolitical content. We discuss the intended and unintended ramifications of these components, highlighting the importance of future CSCW research to critically engage with pluralist political narratives situated in varied societies, especially non-Western democracies.

Seasonality Patterns of Internet Searches on Mental Health: Exploratory Infodemiology Study.

BackgroundThe study of seasonal patterns of public interest in psychiatric disorders has important theoretical and practical implications for service planning and delivery. The recent explosion of internet searches suggests that mining search databases yields unique information on public interest in mental health disorders, which is a significantly more affordable approach than population health studies.ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate seasonal patterns of internet mental health queries in Ontario, Canada.MethodsWeekly data on health queries in Ontario from Google Trends were downloaded for a 5-year period (2012-2017) for the terms “schizophrenia,” “autism,” “bipolar,” “depression,” “anxiety,” “OCD” (obsessive-compulsive disorder), and “suicide.” Control terms were overall search results for the terms “health” and “how.” Time-series analyses using a continuous wavelet transform were performed to isolate seasonal components in the search volume for each term.ResultsAll mental health queries showed significant seasonal patterns with peak periodicity occurring over the winter months and troughs occurring during summer, except for “suicide.” The comparison term “health” also exhibited seasonal periodicity, while the term “how” did not, indicating that general information seeking may not follow a seasonal trend in the way that mental health information seeking does.ConclusionsSeasonal patterns of internet search volume in a wide range of mental health terms were observed, with the exception of “suicide.” Our study demonstrates that monitoring internet search trends is an affordable, instantaneous, and naturalistic method to sample public interest in large populations and inform health policy planners.

A Quantitative Survey on the Influence of Students' Epistemic Beliefs on Their General Information Seeking Behavior

This exploratory survey aimed to investigate the possible influence of students' epistemic beliefs (EBs) on their general information seeking behavior (GISB). The study sample consisted of 290 undergraduate students majoring in different disciplines in some centers and units of Payame Noor University (distance education) in northern Iran in the academic year of 2012–2013. They completed a 28-itemed Epistemic Beliefs Inventory and a researcher-made 25-itemed General Information Seeking Behavior Questionnaire. By using SPSS 19 software, collected data was analyzed. The findings showed that students' EBs positively affected their GISB. Students with sophisticated EBs had elaborate GISB in comparison with those having naïve EBs. It can be concluded that the consideration of epistemic beliefs is relevant for research on information seeking behavior. This necessitates us to revise our approaches to reference services, information consulting and information literacy. This study and further related studies can lead to better performance in information environments from the user's side and guide academic librarians to integrate epistemic beliefs in library instruction.

Increasing Search Success Rate by Comparing Queries Formation Patterns

Retrieving suitable information to a user's information request is a crucial task of search engines. However, most of conventional search engines that are based on pattern matching schemes tend to provide too many improper results, most of which are not corresponding to a user's request. It is due to the uncertainty o f queries. To overcome this problem, we distinguished two different patterns after extensive investigation about the process of q uery formation. One is the general information seeking pattern and the other is the scholastic information retrieving pattern. The general infor mation seeking pattern has a tendency to correspond to cross- relational query formation process pattern, and the scholastic informatio n retrieving pattern corresponds to goal-oriented structured query pattern. This paper proposes a method to improve search results by utilizing these two query formation patterns. The study on the formation of general cross-relational queries, and goal-oriented str uctured query pattern by which comparing or modeling will improve the efficiency of navigation. These proposals will benefit not only sear ch engine developers and library managers, but also search engine users and researchers. This paper is expected to provide more suitable searching results than those obtained by using current typical information retrieval engines.

Communication and Community Integration: An Analysis of the Communication Behavior of Newcomers

Community integration for newcomers was more strongly related to general information seeking than to specific use of newspapers. Four hundred newcomers in Seattle were polled by phone. When newcomers arrive in a community, they need to fill many information gaps, and this study found that newspapers (which made no special effort to reach newcomers in the city studied) did not fill them especially well. People who were reluctant to leave their old community were most interested in becoming integrated into the new one, in terms of gaining information.