An experimental analysis of the impact of campaign polls on electoral information seeking

Abstract. Background: Research has already acknowledged the importance of the Internet in suicide prevention as search engines such as Google are increasingly used in seeking both helpful and harmful suicide-related information. Aims: We aimed to assess the impact of a highly publicized suicide by a Hollywood actor on suicide-related online information seeking. Method: We tested the impact of the highly publicized suicide of Robin Williams on volumes of suicide-related search queries. Results: Both harmful and helpful search terms increased immediately after the actor's suicide, with a substantial jump of harmful queries. Limitations: The study has limitations (e.g., possible validity threats of the query share measure, use of ambiguous search terms). Conclusion: Online suicide prevention efforts should try to increase online users' awareness of and motivation to seek help, for which Google's own helpline box could play an even more crucial role in the future.

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545. The Impact of COVID-19 on African Americans’ Health Attitudes and Information Seeking Behavior

Open Forum Infectious Diseases ◽

10.1093/ofid/ofaa439.739 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽

pp. S338-S339

Author(s):

Katherine Kricorian ◽

Ozlem Equils ◽

Karin Kricorian ◽

Brianna Rochebrun

Keyword(s):

African Americans ◽

Information Seeking ◽

Disease Incidence ◽

Family Members ◽

National Sample ◽

Health Attitudes ◽

Health News ◽

Before And After ◽

Science And Government ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background African-Americans suffer a disproportionate impact from COVID-19, comprising about 24% of deaths while representing 13% of the US population. We conducted a study to understand COVID-19’s impact on African-Americans’ health attitudes. Methods In April 2020, we surveyed online a national sample of US adults on their health attitudes and behaviors before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. Comparisons were analyzed using chi-squared tests. Results A total of 2,544 individuals completed the survey: 473 African-Americans, 282 Hispanics and 1,799 Caucasians responded. The mean ages of each group were 41.4 ± 11 years, 38.0 ± 11 years and 45.7 ± 13 years, respectively. Before COVID-19, African-Americans were least likely to report they had trust in science (53% vs. 68% for Hispanics and 77% for Caucasians; p< .01) and government (16% vs. 27% and 28%; p< .01). After COVID-19, the percentage of African-Americans who had trust in science and government fell further to 44% (p< .01) and 9% (p< .01), respectively, and remained significantly lower than the other two groups. Twice as many African-Americans vs. Caucasians stopped following science and health news after COVID-19 (9% vs. 4%, p< .01). The percentage of African-Americans who reported anxiety about their health rose from 30% pre-COVID to 53% after the outbreak (p< .01), and the percentage who reported anxiety about their family members’ health rose from 35% to 61% (p< .01). Only 25% of African-Americans surveyed agreed that if they contracted COVID-19, they were confident they would get the healthcare needed. Conclusion After COVID-19, African-Americans’ trust in science and government fell and a meaningful percentage stopped following science and health news, possibly reducing access to important health information. The percentage of African-Americans reporting anxiety about the future, about their health and about their family members’ health all increased significantly after COVID-19. Only a minority of African-Americans agreed they would get the needed healthcare if they contracted COVID-19. These findings have implications for the mental health and behavioral impacts of COVID-19 on African-Americans and for the development of health communications to high-disease-incidence populations. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

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An Experimental Analysis of the Effects of Different Hardware Setups on Stereo Camera Systems

International Journal of Semantic Computing ◽

10.1142/s1793351x21400080 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 (03) ◽

pp. 337-357

Author(s):

Alexander Julian Golkowski ◽

Marcus Handte ◽

Peter Roch ◽

Pedro J. Marrón

Keyword(s):

Experimental Analysis ◽

Autonomous Navigation ◽

Indoor Environments ◽

Camera System ◽

Stereo Camera ◽

Camera Systems ◽

Sensing Technology ◽

Stereo Cameras ◽

The Impact ◽

General Guidance

For many application areas such as autonomous navigation, the ability to accurately perceive the environment is essential. For this purpose, a wide variety of well-researched sensor systems are available that can be used to detect obstacles or navigation targets. Stereo cameras have emerged as a very versatile sensing technology in this regard due to their low hardware cost and high fidelity. Consequently, much work has been done to integrate them into mobile robots. However, the existing literature focuses on presenting the concepts and algorithms used to implement the desired robot functions on top of a given camera setup. As a result, the rationale and impact of choosing this camera setup are usually neither discussed nor described. Thus, when designing the stereo camera system for a mobile robot, there is not much general guidance beyond isolated setups that worked for a specific robot. To close the gap, this paper studies the impact of the physical setup of a stereo camera system in indoor environments. To do this, we present the results of an experimental analysis in which we use a given software setup to estimate the distance to an object while systematically changing the camera setup. Thereby, we vary the three main parameters of the physical camera setup, namely the angle and distance between the cameras as well as the field of view and a rather soft parameter, the resolution. Based on the results, we derive several guidelines on how to choose the parameters for an application.

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Blurred reputations: Managing professional and private information online

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science ◽

10.1177/0961000618769977 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 52 (1) ◽

pp. 16-26 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Frances V.C. Ryan ◽

Peter Cruickshank ◽

Hazel Hall ◽

Alistair Lawson

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Private Information ◽

Information Seeking ◽

Information Science ◽

Private Lives ◽

Professional Reputation ◽

Media Platform ◽

Everyday Life Information Seeking ◽

The Impact ◽

Reputation Building

Results are reported from a study that investigated patterns of information behaviour and use as related to personal reputation building and management in online environments. An everyday life information seeking (ELIS) perspective was adopted. Data were collected by diary and interview from 45 social media users who hold professional and managerial work roles, and who are users of Twitter, Facebook and/or LinkedIn. These data were first transcribed, then coded with NVivo10 according to themes identified from a preliminary literature review, with further codes added as they emerged from the content of the participant diaries and interviews. The main findings reveal that the portrayal of different personas online contributes to the presentation (but not the creation) of identity, that information-sharing practices for reputation building and management vary according to social media platform, and that the management of online connections and censorship are important to the protection of reputation. The maintenance of professional reputation is more important than private reputation to these users. They are aware of the ‘blur’ between professional and private lives in online contexts, and the influence that it bears on efforts to manage an environment where LinkedIn is most the useful of the three sites considered, and Facebook the most risky. With its novel focus on the ‘whole self’, this work extends understandings of the impact of information on the building and management of reputation from an information science perspective.

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Experimental Analysis of Predecision Information Seeking

Journal of Marketing Research ◽

10.1177/002224376900600208 ◽

1969 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 192-197 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

John E. Swan

Keyword(s):

Experimental Analysis ◽

Consumer Choice ◽

Information Seeking ◽

Choice Experiment ◽

Optimal Choice ◽

Brand Information

A simulated consumer choice experiment showed that where the same brands appeared across a set of trials, prechoice information seeking declined as the subjects evidently learned to choose by brand. Information seeking was also lower for satisfactory, as compared with optimal, choice.

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Episodic curiosity for avoiding asteroids: Per-trial information gain for choice outcomes drive information seeking

10.31234/osf.io/udazx ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Linus Holm ◽

Gustaf Wadenholt ◽

Paul Schrater

Keyword(s):

Skill Acquisition ◽

Information Seeking ◽

Information Gain ◽

Tight Coupling ◽

Individual Level ◽

Trial Outcome ◽

And Performance ◽

Uncertain Outcomes ◽

The Impact

Humans often appear to desire information for its own sake, but it is presently unclear what drives this desire. The important role that resolving uncertainty plays in stimulating information seeking has suggested a tight coupling between the intrinsic motivation to gather information and performance gains, and has been construed as a drive for long-term learning. Using a simple asteroid-avoidance game that allows us to study learning and information seeking at an experimental time-scale, we show that we can separate the incentive for information-seeking from a long-term learning outcome, and show that information-seeking is best predicted by per-trial outcome uncertainty. Specifically, our 43 participants were more willing to take time penalties for feedback on trials with uncertain outcomes. We found strong group (R2 = .97) and individual level (mean R2 = .44) support for a linear relationship between feedback request rate and information gain as determined by per-trial outcome uncertainty. This information better reflects filling in the gaps of the episodic record of choice outcomes than long-term skill acquisition or assessment. Our results suggest that this easy to compute quantity can drive information-seeking, potentially allowing simple organisms to intelligently gather information without having to anticipate the impact on future performance.

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Pregnancy-Related Information Seeking and Sharing in the Social Media Era Among Expectant Mothers: Qualitative Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.13694 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Chengyan Zhu ◽

Runxi Zeng ◽

Wei Zhang ◽

Richard Evans ◽

Rongrong He

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Pregnant Women ◽

Information Seeking ◽

Chinese Culture ◽

Instant Messaging ◽

Media Usage ◽

Related Information ◽

Expectant Mothers ◽

Media Channels ◽

The Impact

BACKGROUND Social media has become the most popular communication tool used by Chinese citizens, including expectant mothers. An increasing number of women have adopted various forms of social media channels, such as interactive websites, instant messaging, and mobile apps, to solve problems and obtain answers to queries during pregnancy. Although the use of the internet by pregnant women has been studied extensively worldwide, limited research exists that explores the changing social media usage habits in China, where the 1 child policy ended in 2015. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to (1) present the status quo of pregnancy-related information seeking and sharing via social media among Chinese expectant mothers, (2) reveal the impact of social media usage, and (3) shed light on pregnancy-related health services delivered via social media channels. METHODS A qualitative approach was employed to examine social media usage and its consequences on pregnant women. A total of 20 women who had conceived and were at various stages of pregnancy were interviewed from July 20 to August 10, 2017. Thematic analysis was conducted on the collected data to identify patterns in usage. RESULTS Overall, 80% (16/20) of participants were aged in their 20s (mean 28.5 years [SD 4.3]). All had used social media for pregnancy-related purposes. For the seeking behavior, 18 codes were merged into 4 themes, namely, gravida, fetus, delivery, and the postpartum period; whereas for sharing behaviors, 10 codes were merged into 4 themes, namely, gravida, fetus, delivery, and caretaker. Lurking, small group sharing, bad news avoidance, and cross-checking were identified as the preferred patterns for using social media. Overall, 95% (19/20) of participants reported a positive mental impact from using social media during their pregnancy. CONCLUSIONS It is indisputable that social media has played an increasingly important role in supporting expectant mothers in China. The specific seeking and sharing patterns identified in this study indicate that the general quality of pregnancy-related information on social media, as well as Chinese culture toward pregnancy, is improving. The new themes that merge in pregnancy-related social media use represent a shift toward safe pregnancy and the promotion of a more enjoyable pregnancy. Future prenatal care should provide further information on services related to being comfortable during pregnancy and reducing the inequality of social media–based services caused by the digital divide.

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"It Isn't All about You": The Management of ICT and Non-ICT Information Resources via Human Information Behaviour

10.26686/wgtn.16985521 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Paul Daniel Atkinson

Keyword(s):

Activity Theory ◽

Information And Communication Technologies ◽

Time Management ◽

Information Seeking ◽

Research Question ◽

Information Use ◽

Information Behaviour ◽

Systems Model ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Impact

<p>"Applications that gather dust... Technologies no one understands... Information that's ignored... [thus, there is still very much a need to] pay attention to Information behaviour" (Davenport, 1997, p.2). Human Information Behaviour is as important a concept today as it has ever been, as there are still millions of dollars going into improving information technology. While information seeking behaviour has been rigorously studied over the years, information use has not received the same attention. Neither has the IT artefact or choice of such technologies at the hands of users of information. This research paper aims to produce a taxonomy of the information use behaviours and ICT and non-ICT resource use of IT academics through a qualitative study involving both observation (incorporating thinking aloud) and structured face-to-face interview techniques. The research question asks "How do IT Academics manage the integration between various Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and non-ICT sources to support their information behaviours (IB) and, therefore, achieve their desired outcome? We observed and interviewed six IT academics carrying out their normal working activities, looking into actual information events as they occurred, information outcomes, information behaviours, and the technologies used by academics in their daily interactions with information. We developed a systems model, informed by activity theory, to frame the discussion. What was uncovered by the study was a tendency for academics to converge on a single technology - that of the laptop. This together with email was what academics tended to prefer to use, both at the office and in their homes; a surprising find as it was assumed that there would be a plethora of different ICTs in use. We found that technologies contributed to a blurring of the work/life equilibrium for many academics. Academics did exhibit a wide range of behaviours in their laptop and email use. Many of them were relatively unproductive, and involved moving information from one place, or one form to another, and finally ending in deletion rather than active use. Many of our interviewees reflected a need to use their time wisely through time management, and the impact of email on time management. These results also yielded the justification of Activity Theory which was used in the study, and of the systems framework which was constructed for the study. The study also confirmed the importance of environmental influences on academic's working lives, which tended to create a somewhat cyclic nature to their information events. Overall, it was not clear that patterns of use of ICTs contributed to effective information use behaviour by IT academics.</p>

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A selective effect of dopamine on information-seeking

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.59152 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Valentina Vellani ◽

Lianne P de Vries ◽

Anne Gaule ◽

Tali Sharot

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Information Seeking ◽

Selective Effect ◽

Reward Seeking ◽

The Impact ◽

The Brain ◽

Insight Into ◽

Primary Reward

Humans are motivated to seek information from their environment. How the brain motivates this behavior is unknown. One speculation is that the brain employs neuromodulatory systems implicated in primary reward-seeking, in particular dopamine, to instruct information-seeking. However, there has been no causal test for the role of dopamine in information-seeking. Here, we show that administration of a drug that enhances dopamine function (dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine; L-DOPA) reduces the impact of valence on information-seeking. Specifically, while participants under Placebo sought more information about potential gains than losses, under L-DOPA this difference was not observed. The results provide new insight into the neurobiology of information-seeking and generates the prediction that abnormal dopaminergic function (such as in Parkinson’s disease) will result in valence-dependent changes to information-seeking.

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Exploring the nexus of social media influencers and consumer brand engagement

Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics ◽

10.1108/apjml-07-2021-0522 ◽

2022 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Man Lai Cheung ◽

Wilson K.S. Leung ◽

Morgan X. Yang ◽

Kian Yeik Koay ◽

Man Kit Chang

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Social Interaction ◽

Information Seeking ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Motivational Factors ◽

Three Dimensions ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Consumer Engagement ◽

Content Type ◽

The Impact

PurposeGrounded in uses and gratification theory (UGT) and observational learning theory (OLT), this study aims to understand the impact of motivational factors on consumer-influencer engagement behaviors (CIEBs). Motivating factors, including entertainment, information seeking, reward and social interaction, are regarded as antecedents of consumers' OLT, as manifested by CIEB dimensions, including consumption, contribution and creation, and subsequently drive consumer engagement with the endorsed brands.Design/methodology/approachA self-administered questionnaire was distributed to Malaysian social media users. A total of 263 responses were collected and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine the impact of motivational factors on CIEBs.FindingsThe results show that the three dimensions of CIEBs can be predicted by different gratifications (information seeking, entertainment, reward and interaction). In addition, two of the CIEB dimensions, consumption and contribution, were found to have a significant positive influence on consumers' engagement with endorsed brands.Practical implicationsThis study provides insights into how social media influencers (SMIs) could lead to CIEBs by creating entertaining and rewarding content that facilitates social interaction between consumers. SMIs and marketers that encourage consumers to browse, comment and share SMI-created posts will enhance consumer engagement with the endorsed brands, as engagement is driven by the consumption and contribution to SMI-created content.Originality/valueSMI marketing is increasing, and many brands are beginning to rely more on SMIs to promote brands. Yet, there is a dearth of studies that have examined how SMIs play a role in affecting consumers' engagement with endorsed brands. This study contributes to the marketing literature by developing and empirically testing the research model. Results suggest that social interaction, reward and entertainment are key motivational factors that drive CIEBs, which, in turn, foster consumer engagement with endorsed brands.

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