A Think-Aloud Study to Understand Factors Affecting Online Health Search

Ghenai, Amira; Smucker, Mark D.; Clarke, Charles L. A.

doi:10.1145/3343413.3377961

Cited by 31 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This paper describes as one the first in the field of (food) information retrieval how search results should be presented, rather than optimizing what items (i.e., recipes) should be retrieved [cf. Helmy et al (2015), Ghenai et al (2020)]. Moreover, it shows how visual attractiveness can be modelled, as well as used to steer user preferences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Figure 1 (of Health UK and Agency, 2016)], it seems that users are more likely to be persuaded by affectively-oriented nudges (e.g., through visual attractiveness of food images), as well as through behaviorally-oriented nudges (e.g., position in a list). These types of nudges have been examined in 'offline contexts' (Kallbekken and Saelen, 2013;Bergeron et al, 2019), as well as in a couple of online user experiments (Elsweiler et al, 2017;Ghenai et al, 2020). However, our study is the first in which both recipe retrieval and food nudges are combined in a search interface, which can serve as the starting point for more elaborate work.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nudging Healthy Choices in Food Search Through Visual Attractiveness

Starke

Willemsen

Trattner

2021

Front. Artif. Intell.

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Recipe websites are becoming increasingly popular to support people in their home cooking. However, most of these websites prioritize popular recipes, which tend to be unhealthy. Drawing upon research on visual biases and nudges, this paper investigates whether healthy food choices can be supported in food search by depicting attractive images alongside recipes, as well as by re-ranking search results on health. After modelling the visual attractiveness of recipe images, we asked 239 users to search for specific online recipes and to select those they liked the most. Our analyses revealed that users tended to choose a healthier recipe if a visually attractive image was depicted alongside it, as well as if it was listed at the top of a list of search results. Even though less popular recipes were promoted this way, it did not come at the cost of a user’s level of satisfaction.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nudging Healthy Choices in Food Search Through Visual Attractiveness

Starke

Willemsen

Trattner

2021

Front. Artif. Intell.

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“…This effect (i.e., SEME) is particularly prominent when search results are biased towards a supporting viewpoint (e.g., supporting the idea that zoos should exist) [60]. It can occur even after single search sessions, for a variety of topics (e.g., political elections, medical treatment, and vaccinations) [3,15,47,60], and without users' awareness [19]. Given that real search result rankings are often biased concerning viewpoints [18,51,[58][59][60], SEME is a pressing concern [7,9].…”

Section: Cognitive Biases In Web Searchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This type of attitude change due to viewing a biased ranked list of search results has been called the search engine manipulation effect (SEME) [15]. It can occur even after single search sessions, for a variety of topics (e.g., political elections and medical treatment) [3,15,47], and without users' awareness [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assuming that the user engages with only these first ten search results, they may change their attitude towards a favorability for zoos because, among the results they consumed, zoo-supporting documents were in the majority (i.e., exposure effects) and ranked higher (i.e., order effects). More recent research indicates that users may be looking for majority viewpoints but are unaware of any order effects when they search the web [19]. However, humans are often unaware of their biases [50], so it is currently unclear which cognitive processes truly contribute to SEME.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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This Is Not What We Ordered: Exploring Why Biased Search Result Rankings Affect User Attitudes on Debated Topics

Draws

Tintarev

Gadiraju

et al. 2021

Proceedings of the 44th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval

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In web search on debated topics, algorithmic and cognitive biases strongly influence how users consume and process information. Recent research has shown that this can lead to a search engine manipulation effect (SEME): when search result rankings are biased towards a particular viewpoint, users tend to adopt this favored viewpoint. To better understand the mechanisms underlying SEME, we present a pre-registered, 5 × 3 factorial user study investigating whether order effects (i.e., users adopting the viewpoint pertaining to higher-ranked documents) can cause SEME. For five different debated topics, we evaluated attitude change after exposing participants with mild pre-existing attitudes to search results that were overall viewpoint-balanced but reflected one of three levels of algorithmic ranking bias. We found that attitude change did not differ across levels of ranking bias and did not vary based on individual user differences. Our results thus suggest that order effects may not be an underlying mechanism of SEME. Exploratory analyses lend support to the presence of exposure effects (i.e., users adopting the majority viewpoint among the results they examine) as a contributing factor to users' attitude change. We discuss how our findings can inform the design of user bias mitigation strategies. CCS CONCEPTS• Information systems → Web searching and information discovery; • Human-centered computing → User studies.

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Relating information seeking and use to intellectual humility

Gorichanaz

2021

Asso for Info Science & Tech

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Virtue epistemology offers a yet-untapped path for ethical development in information science. This paper presents two empirical studies on intellectual humility (IH), a cornerstone intellectual virtue. Centrally, IH is a matter of being open to the possibility that one may be misinformed or uninformed; it involves accurately valuing one's beliefs according to the evidence. The studies presented in this paper explore the relationship between IH and people's information seeking and use. First, a correlational questionnaire study was conducted with 201 participants considering a recent, real-life task; second, a concurrent thinkaloud study was conducted with 8 participants completing 3 online search tasks. These studies give further color to prior assertions that people with higher IH engage in more information seeking. The results show, for instance, that those with higher IH may actually favor more easily accessible information sources and that some dimensions of IH, such as modesty and engagement, may be most important to information seeking. These findings offer a nuanced understanding of the relationship between IH and information behavior and practices. They suggest avenues for further research, and they may be applied in educational contexts and sociotechnical design.The greatest empiricists among us are only empiricists on reflection: when left to their instincts, they dogmatize like infallible popes.-William James, "The Will to Believe," 1896

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A Think-Aloud Study to Understand Factors Affecting Online Health Search

Cited by 31 publications

References 24 publications

Nudging Healthy Choices in Food Search Through Visual Attractiveness

Nudging Healthy Choices in Food Search Through Visual Attractiveness

This Is Not What We Ordered: Exploring Why Biased Search Result Rankings Affect User Attitudes on Debated Topics

Relating information seeking and use to intellectual humility

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