Information Seeking Intentions Research Articles

Environmental Risk (and Benefit) Information Seeking Intentions: The Case of Carbon Capture and Storage in Southeast Texas

ABSTRACTAmericans remain relatively unaware of the risks and benefits associated with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, including its role in combating CO2 emissions as a means to address climate change. Our goal is to determine factors that might help build awareness and knowledge of CCS so that citizens can make informed decisions about it. Specifically, we focus on perceived risks, benefits and emotions associated with CCS and intentions to seek information about it. We surveyed 970 adults from a region of Texas that has seen recent growth in the application of CCS technology. Consistent with prior research, most respondents were not aware of CCS or the risks and benefits associated with it. To explore CCS-related information -seeking intent, we sought guidance from the planned risk information -seeking model, which identifies factors that contribute to intentions to seek information about risk-related topics. The majority of the hypothesized relationships were supported, and the model accounted for 48% of the variance in intent to seek information about CCS risks and benefits. Furthermore, perceived benefits and hope played significant roles in explaining information-seeking intent. Implications for better engaging the public with the topic of CCS are discussed.

Effects of a Nicotine Fact Sheet on Perceived Risk of Nicotine and E-Cigarettes and Intentions to Seek Information About and Use E-Cigarettes.

We examined how a nicotine fact sheet influenced smokers’ beliefs about nicotine and electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), a potentially less harmful alternative to conventional cigarettes. In an exploratory online experiment, 756 US adult current and recent former smokers (quit in the past 2 years) were randomized to view a nicotine fact sheet or control messages (bottled water ads). Effects of the nicotine fact sheet on perceived nicotine addictiveness, nicotine risk, comparative risk of e-cigarettes, and dual use intentions were analyzed using log-Poisson regression with robust error. Linear regression analyzed effects on perceived absolute risk and switching and information seeking intentions about e-cigarettes. Compared to control, the nicotine fact sheet doubled the probability of disagreeing that nicotine is the main cause of smoking-related disease (26.2% vs. 12.7%, RR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.51, 2.82, p < 0.001). However, nearly three quarters of participants viewing the nicotine fact sheet still thought that nicotine is the main cause of smoking-related disease. The nicotine fact sheet increased smokers’ intentions to seek information about e-cigarettes (b = 0.45, 95% CI = 0.15, 0.74, p = 0.003). We did not find evidence suggesting unintended consequences of the nicotine fact sheet on smokers’ e-cigarettes risk perceptions or use intentions (e.g., increased dual use intentions or reduced absolute e-cigarette risk perception).

Effects of public trust on behavioural intentions in the pharmaceutical sector: data from six European countries

Few studies have empirically examined the relationship between trust and its consequences in the pharmaceutical context (e.g. the consequences of trust in medicines advice for patient behaviour). This study empirically examined the European public’s perceived trustworthiness of medical, societal, and industry sources of medicines advice, and its consequences for their behavioural intentions including their medicine-taking and information-seeking behaviour. A representative survey (N = 6,001) was conducted with adults from six European countries: Great Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, and Poland. As expected, respondents consistently rated advice from medical sources (GPs, pharmacists, local hospitals, emergency services) as significantly more trustworthy than advice from societal sources (the Internet, friends/relatives, and the mass media) and, especially, industry (pharmaceutical companies and brand specific websites). A structural equation model then revealed strong associations between the public’s perceived trustworthiness of these medical, societal, and industry sources and their medicine-taking and information seeking intentions. Important national variations were found including in the public’s opinions on when authorities should convey new safety information. Implications for communicating benefit-risk information in a more transparent regulatory environment are discussed, including the importance of maintaining and strengthening trust in medical actors and committing more resources to supporting national risk communication.

How to communicate cyber-risk? An examination of behavioral recommendations in cybersecurity crises

This study intended to incorporate the Cognitive Appraisal Theory with the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) by demonstrating that the appraisal process and emotional arousals are an essential part of people’s risk message processing. A 2 (behavioral recommendations: present vs. not present) × 2 (threat: high vs. low) × 2 (message types) between-subject experiment design was used to investigate the effects of the intersection between organizational risk communication strategies on publics’ negative emotions (i.e. fear and anxiety) and behavioral intentions in a cybersecurity crisis (data breach) context. Results confirmed the prediction and indicated that negative emotions (i.e. fear and anxiety) mediated behavioral recommendation and threat’s influence on publics’ behavioral outcomes such as compliance intentions, information seeking intentions and prosocial behavioral intentions. The study has practical implications for public policy making regarding the communication of cybersecurity risk.

How Does a Radio Host’s Testimonial Influence Media Experiences? The Indirect Effect of Social Presence

This study examined how a radio host’s personal experiences (testimonials) influence listeners’ experiences, particularly focusing on the role of social presence. A Web-based experiment, using 113 undergrad students at a large public university in the United States, compared effects of a radio host’s sharing vs. not sharing testimonials during the radio program. The investigation found that social presence has significant indirect effects. Specifically, when the radio host shares testimonials, listeners experience a stronger feeling of social presence of the radio host, and it consequently fosters stronger levels of enjoyment, perceived credibility of the radio host, and information seeking intention.

No Regrets When It Comes to Your Health: Anticipated Regret, Subjective Norms, Information Insufficiency and Intent to Seek Health Information from Multiple Sources

ABSTRACT Research suggests that a search for health information from diverse sources is crucial for obtaining accurate and quality information. As a result, this study examines motivators of intentions to use multiple information sources. Our guiding framework is the planned risk information seeking model, which poses a direct relationship between seeking-related subjective norms and information seeking intentions, and an indirect relationship between those two variables through information insufficiency (or perceived need for more information). To further explore these relationships, we integrate a novel variable, anticipated regret, as an additional mediator of both relationships. The information seeking behavior of interest in this study is intention to seek information through multiple sources. Survey results from 379 undergraduate students show that seeking-related subjective norms are positively related with information insufficiency through regret, and positively related with seeking intent through regret and information insufficiency. The implications of these findings are discussed.

The role of imagination in consumers’ processing of visual metaphors in prescription drug advertising

This research examines the influence of visual metaphors in direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) for prescription drugs. Results indicate that consumers’ propensity to imagine enhances their objective comprehension of direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertisements that contain fused visual metaphors (vs. juxtaposed visual metaphors). Additionally, when DTC pharmaceutical advertisements feature visual metaphors with low comparability, consumers primed with imagination-focused visualization rather than memory-focused visualization inducements experience greater information-seeking intentions regarding drug health risks for ads using fused rather than juxtaposed visual metaphors. These results suggest notable DTCA insights for advertising and policymaking.

What influences college students’ career information seeking on the internet? A test of the comprehensive model of information seeking

ABSTRACTIssues with unemployment, underemployment, and inadequate preparation have raised concerns about what colleges are doing to ready students for post-graduate careers, but little discussion exists regarding students’ roles in the process. Students play active roles in the anticipatory socialization process, so this study examines the factors that influence college students to seek career information from the Internet, using the comprehensive model of information seeking (CMIS) as a framework. Results demonstrated a good fit to the model, with Internet experience exerting the strongest influence on participants’ Internet self-efficacy, perceptions of information source quality, and, in turn, perceptions of information source usefulness and information seeking intentions. However, several proposed paths were not significant, suggesting the need for replication studies and further research. Results provide theoretical support for the CMIS as a viable framework beyond health information seeking and identify multiple practical applications and opportunities for future research on career information seeking.

Public perceptions and information seeking intentions related to seismicity in five Texas communities

Texas has experienced levels of seismicity comparable to areas of California in recent years, and seismologists suggest that the increased activity in Texas is likely the result of human activities associated with oil and gas extraction. However, the general public is largely unaware of induced seismicity and related risks. To better understand this lack of awareness and how it might be addressed, we sought guidance from Kahlor's (2010) planned risk information seeking model to explore the social-psychological factors that are likely to influence Texan's intentions to seek information about the potential risks posed by earthquakes. We test the model using data collected from residents in five Texas communities that have varied experiences with seismicity. The data supports the model: the variance in intentions to seek information about earthquake risks were largely explained by positive attitudes towards seeking such information, perceived control over the ability to seek such information, perceived social pressure related to seeking such information, perceived earthquake risks, risk-related emotion (e.g., worry) and a perceived need for more information about earthquake risks. The study highlights the applicability of this risk information-seeking model to the context of seismic risk, and suggests ways in which scientists and communicators might engage the public more effectively with the topic.

Consumer Engagement with Prescription Medicine Decisions: Influences of Health Beliefs and Health Communication Sources

ABSTRACTConsumers’ prescription drug decisions are affected by a number of structural, psychological, and health communication source variables. To provide a theoretically sound and comprehensive prescription medication decision engagement framework, this study integrated Andersen’s Health Service Use Model to address contextual and structural factors, the Health Belief Model (HBM) to examine psychological factors, and extant research on the influence of various health communication sources to explain the prescription drug decision engagement mechanisms of health information-seeking intention, prescription drug-seeking intent, and prescription-seeking behavior. Employing survey methodology, the framework was tested using a sample of U.S. adult consumers (N = 370). Results demonstrated the utility of the integrated model for explaining consumers’ participation in their prescription decisions. Specifically, consumers’ assessment of target health behaviors and the use of various health communication sources significantly improved the explanatory power of the decision engagement model beyond structural factors. The results impart valuable theoretical contributions and have the potential to guide public health interventions related to consumers’ prescription drug decisions.

An Augmented Risk Information Seeking Model: Perceived Food Safety Risk Related to Food Recalls.

Food safety is of worldwide concern. As an effective mechanism governing food safety, food recalls are widely applied around the world. Though it is well known that food recalls can have substantial, negative impacts on corporate reputation and marketing, we know relatively little related to what factors motivate people to seek related information after the recall announcement. This study attempts to elucidate the determinants of information-seeking intention in the context of food safety in food recalls by using an augmented risk information-seeking model. A survey of 631 Chinese residents was used to explore the proposed framework. The results show that current knowledge, risk perception, perceived channel beliefs, and perceived information-gathering capacity (PIGC) are all significant predictors of information need and information-seeking intention. It was also confirmed that risk perception has a positive correlation with seeking need. These findings are important for policymakers, recalling manufacturers, and retailers to develop strategies for better risk communication in food recall announcements.

Understanding publics’ post-crisis social media engagement behaviors: An examination of antecedents and mediators

This study examines the psychological mechanisms underlying the process that enables publics’ individual differences (e.g., the levels of uncertainty avoidance and social media usage) to give rise to varying post-crisis social media engagement intentions (e.g., information seeking, support seeking, and negative word-of-mouth). The study confirms that this process is serially mediated by perceived threat severity, perceived susceptibility, and negative emotions. These psychological mediators, however, function differently between uncertainty avoidance and social media usage. For uncertainty avoidance, a high arousal negative emotion (e.g., anger, fear) is a more essential step to influence engagement intentions than a low arousal emotion (e.g., shame, guilt). For social media usage, however, the type of aroused negative emotions does not matter. Rather, the relationship social media usage has with information seeking is different from that with support seeking and negative word-of-mouth intentions. Social media usage induces information seeking intentions only through publics’ cognitive appraisals of the situation without the activation of negative emotions, while it induces supporting seeking and negative word-of-mouth intentions through both cognitive appraisals and negative emotion arousals.

Comparing the web and mobile platforms of a social Q&A service from the user’s perspective

PurposeAs an increasing number of users have acquired information across the web and mobile platforms for social question and answering (Q&A), it is of interest to explore whether there are differences in social Q&A usages between the two platforms. The purpose of this paper is to compare web and mobile platforms of a social Q&A service from the user’s perspective in terms of three dimensions, namely, demographics, individual-based constructs, and information-based constructs.Design/methodology/approachBecause Zhihu.com is one of the most popular social Q&A sites in China, the authors used online questionnaires to investigate its users’ perceptions of these three dimensions. From January to March 2016, the authors obtained 278 valid responses in total through snowball and convenient sampling. Collected data are analyzed through descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.FindingsThe results indicate that there exist significant differences between web users and mobile users on Zhihu.com in terms of gender, affinity, and information seeking. More specifically, compared to the male users, more female users rely on the mobile platform to access the information service; mobile users perceive higher affinity with Zhihu.com than web users; and mobile users perceive higher information-seeking intention than web users do.Originality/valueRegarding the theoretical aspect, this study proposes a conceptual framework for comparison between the web and mobile platforms of social Q&A from the user’s perspective. Regarding the practical aspect, the comparative results of this study could give social Q&A service providers useful information about users’ differences between web and mobile platforms of social Q&A services.

Engaged or Disengaged? Examining the Relationship Between Electoral Ambivalence and Indicators of Political Engagement in the 2012 U.S. Election

ABSTRACTThis study uses uncertainty theories to examine the relationship between presidential electoral ambivalence and three political belief variables: internal efficacy, skepticism, and apathy. We propose that the relationship between ambivalence, which is an indicator of uncertainty, and information-seeking intentions should be mediated by our political belief variables. Our proposed model suggests that presidential electoral ambivalence is characteristic of a disengaged citizenry, with ambivalence correlating with lower levels of internal efficacy and skepticism in a cross-sectional analysis. We also found ambivalence associated with higher levels of apathy in this same analysis. Moreover, we found an over-time indirect effect of ambivalence on information seeking through internal efficacy.

Investigating Uncertainty in Genetic Counseling Encounters: Managing Information About Genetic Cancer Risk

The Theory of Motivated Information Management (TMIM) was used to investigate how individuals at increased risk of developing hereditary cancer seek information from genetic counselors. Results show the TMIM model fit the data well in predicting participants’ intentions to seek information from genetic counselors. Participants felt an uncertainty discrepancy that elicited feelings of anxiety, which in turn negatively predicted both outcome expectancies and efficacy assessments. Efficacy assessments, but not anxiety, significantly predicted participants’ intentions to seek information from a genetic counselor in the future. Findings showed no significant relationship between outcome expectancies and efficacy assessments. One implication for genetic counselors is the need to more closely monitor emotional response to genetic disease risk—whether that emotional response be positive or negative—as that response may influence information-seeking intentions. Further, genetic counselors might also pay more attention to building efficacy for themselves (making patients feel the counselor is more credible) and their patients (increasing patient ability to communicate effectively about genetic disease risk). Analysis also extends TMIM theory by showing that in a relationship where information exchange is the primary function the model still showed good fit. However, outcome expectancies functioned differently than in previous tests of the model.

How does objective and subjective human papillomavirus knowledge affect information-seeking intentions and source preferences?

ABSTRACTThis study examines the effects of objective (factual information) and subjective knowledge (an individual’s self-assessment of how much knowledge they have) on information-seeking intentions and source preferences. It explores the human papillomavirus (HPV) knowledge inequalities in groups of young adults age 18–26 years with and without vaccinations and diagnosis, and different demographics/socio-economic and perceptions of health status. Higher subjective HPV knowledge leads to greater information-seeking intentions from family/friends and mass media but not from health professionals and the Internet. Objective HPV knowledge did not matter for information seeking. The important role of demographics/socio-economic and perceived health status is also discussed.

Understanding consumer health information-seeking behavior from the perspective of the risk perception attitude framework and social support in mobile social media websites

ObjectiveThis study integrates the risk perception attitude framework and social support to examine factors influencing consumers’ intentions to seek health information in mobile social media websites. MethodWe develop a research model consisting of four social support dimensions, perceived health risk, health self-efficacy, and health information-seeking intention. A survey is conducted among patients with non-serious conditions. A two-step approach of structural equation modeling is used to test the research model. ResultsAmong the four dimensions of social support, tangible support and appraisal support significantly influence perceived risk, whereas emotional support and esteem support significantly influence health self-efficacy. Perceived health risk and health self-efficacy significantly influence the health information-seeking behavior intention of consumers. Specifically, health self-efficacy significantly moderates the relationship between perceived risk and behavior intention. ConclusionsThis study highlights the integrated effects of social capital and risk perception attitude framework on health information-seeking intention. It examines relationships among perceived health risk, health self-efficacy, and behavior intention in the mobile social media context. The findings help understand effects of social capital factors on perceived health risk and health self-efficacy.

Information-seeking intentions of residents regarding the risks of nuclear power plant: an empirical study in China

Nuclear power development is a controversial issue in the post-Fukushima era. Outlining the effective risk communication strategies is very important. This study attempts to examine the determinants of information-seeking intentions in the context of nuclear power risks. Guided by risk information-seeking models, such as the risk information seeking and processing, this study developed a conceptual model to explore this issue. A survey of the residents (N = 487) near the Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant significantly validated the hypothesized causal relations. Perceived knowledge about nuclear power is important in predicting the perceived risk, information need, and information-seeking intentions. The information need and channel beliefs are significant predictors of information-seeking intentions. Moreover, results also suggest the mediating role of information need in the information-seeking process. However, information-seeking intentions are indirectly, rather than directly, stimulated by perceived risk. Implications and further research are discussed.

Information Insufficiency and Information Seeking

The risk information seeking and processing model predicts information-seeking behavior based on a number of factors, including information insufficiency. Using the risk information seeking and processing model, the present study experimentally manipulated the two components of information insufficiency (i.e., sufficiency threshold and current knowledge). Sufficiency threshold was manipulated using information about radon risk with varying levels of social distance, whereas current knowledge was manipulated using information about radon coping strategies. Results showed that the high sufficiency threshold condition resulted in greater information seeking intention. On the other hand, the current knowledge manipulation did not affect information seeking intention.

Factors associated with mobile health information seeking among Singaporean women

ABSTRACTThis study examined effects of age and social psychological factors on women’s willingness to be mobile health information seekers. A national survey of 1,878 Singaporean women was conducted to obtain information on women’s mobile phone usage, experiences of health information seeking, and appraisals of using mobile phones to seek health information. Results showed that young, middle-aged, and older women exhibited distinct mobile phone usage behaviors, health information-seeking patterns, and assessments of mobile health information seeking. Factors that accounted for their mobile information-seeking intention also varied. Data reported in this study provide insights into mobile health interventions in the future.