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The COVID‐19 pandemic has created uncertainty and controversy around risk‐related issues such as vaccine mandates. People expressing their opinions on these issues to important others, such as employers, may face significant consequences, such as rewards or rejection. Therefore, people may try to find, avoid, or use information in a way that helps them express risk judgments that are socially acceptable in different social situations. This study investigated how people seek, avoid, and process risk information when they are concerned about their impression management. It also introduced the concept of impression information insufficiency (the perceived gap between the information one has and the information one needs to convey socially acceptable judgments and meet interpersonal needs in social situations) and examined its antecedents and outcomes within the risk information seeking and processing model. We conducted an online survey with 1673 Hong Kong adults during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The results showed that fear and social norms related to greater impression information insufficiency, which thereby was associated with biased risk information seeking, avoidance, and processing. Key points: Policy mandates, such as requiring vaccination, wearing masks, or showing proof of immunization to access public spaces, may increase the pressure that people feel to conform to the prevailing social norms when they express their opinions about the risks involved. People who have to report their views on these mandates to authorities (such as employers, managers, or school officials) or to close contacts (such as relatives, parents, or friends) may face significant social rewards or sanctions depending on how they communicate their risk assessments. Therefore, stating one's risk judgment about policy mandates and related issues can have important implications for one's career, material benefits, or personal relationships in different social contexts.We investigated how people adjust their expressions of risk judgments to match the perceived expectations of their important others by seeking and processing risk information in a socially desirable way. We found that people who were afraid of COVID‐19 and felt normative pressure to be informed about it were more likely to look for and process risk information in a way that aligned with their important others' views on COVID‐19 policies and issues. The need for risk information and normative pressure influenced people's selective and biased use of risk information to align with their social circles.To persuade people to follow policy mandates during public health crises, policymakers and health officials should enlist the help of social role evaluators (e.g., employers, school principals, managers) who can influence the attitudes of their subordinates or students. This is because people may want to impress their evaluators by agreeing with their views on the risky issues. Therefore, risk message designers should highlight, in their messages, how following the policy mandates can create a positive impression (e.g., being responsible and considerate) on their important others (e.g., colleagues, teachers, school principals). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children frequently use Google to answer their questions, yet what they think about Google's capacity and limitations is unclear. This study explores children's beliefs about Google's capacity to answer questions. American children ages 9 and 10 (n = 44; 18 boys and 26 girls) viewed factual questions directed towards Google or a person. After viewing each question, they reported their confidence in the informant's accuracy, the time it would take the informant to obtain the answer and how the informant would obtain the answer. Finally, they generated questions that the internet would be capable or incapable of answering. Children believed Google would be more accurate and faster than a person at answering questions. Children consistently generated appropriate questions that the internet would be good at answering, but they sometimes struggled to generate questions that the internet would not be good at answering. Implications for children's learning are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated how apparent threat of an ambiguous stimuli modulates infants' looking to interaction partners of varying familiarity (mother, familiar experimenter, unfamiliar experimenter). We hypothesized a preference for familiar informants under higher apparent threat, but a preference for unfamiliar informants under lower apparent threat. The informant encouraged infants (N = 104, 8–13 months) to cross a visual cliff in one of two apparent threat conditions (lower vs. higher drop‐off). Under lower threat, infants looked equally long to all informants, but switched gazes more often between their mother and the cliff. Infants explored the cliff more and crossed more often in the mother condition compared to the other two conditions. They also expressed less negative affect in the presence of the mother compared to the unfamiliar experimenter, but not compared to the familiar experimenter. Under high threat, a similar pattern emerged, except that looking duration to the unfamiliar informant was shorter compared to the low threat condition. Heart rate acceleration appeared when infants were placed on the cliff compared to a baseline phase. Higher levels of negative affectivity (but not higher arousal) were observed under higher compared to lower threat. Overall, we found little evidence of the influence of threat within the visual cliff task. We argue that infants may have perceived the cliff as quite challenging even in the lower threat condition and call for more research on the situational embeddedness of early social learning processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents rational inattention as a new, transdiagnostic theory of information seeking in neurodevelopmental conditions that have uneven cognitive and socio‐emotional profiles, including developmental language disorder (DLD), dyslexia, dyscalculia and autism. Rational inattention holds that the optimal solution to minimizing epistemic uncertainty is to avoid imprecise information sources. The key theoretical contribution of this report is to endogenize imprecision, making it a function of the primary neurocognitive difficulties that have been invoked to explain neurodivergent phenotypes, including deficits in auditory perception, working memory, procedural learning and the social brain network. We argue that disengagement with information sources with low endogenous precision (e.g. speech in DLD, orthography‐phonology mappings in dyslexia, numeric stimuli in dyscalculia and social signals in autism) constitutes resource‐rational behaviour. We demonstrate the strength of this account in a series of computational simulations. In experiment 1, we simulate information seeking in artificial agents mimicking an array of neurodivergent phenotypes, which optimally explore a complex learning environment containing speech, text, numeric stimuli and social cues. In experiment 2, we simulate optimal information seeking in a cross‐modal dual‐task paradigm and qualitatively replicate empirical data from children with and without DLD. Across experiments, simulated agents' only aim was to maximally reduce epistemic uncertainty, with no difference in reward across information sources. We show that rational inattention emerges naturally in specific neurodivergent phenotypes as a function of low endogenous precision. For instance, an agent mimicking the DLD phenotype disengages with speech (and preferentially engages with alternative precise information sources) because endogenous imprecision renders speech not conducive to information gain. Because engagement is necessary for learning, simulation demonstrates how optimal information seeking may paradoxically contribute negatively to an already delayed learning trajectory in neurodivergent children. Research Highlights: We present the first comprehensive theory of information seeking in neurodivergent children to date, centred on the notion of rational inattention.We demonstrate the strength of this account in a series of computational simulations involving artificial agents mimicking specific neurodivergent phenotypes that optimally explore a complex learning environment containing speech, text, numeric stimuli, and social cues.We show how optimal information seeking may, paradoxically, contribute negatively to an already delayed learning trajectory in neurodivergent children.This report advances our understanding of the factors shaping short‐term decision making and long‐term learning in neurodivergent children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, Hurricane Dorian affected Atlantic Canada with widespread impacts across the region. In the days preceding landfall, there was a great deal of discussion about the storm and its potential impacts. This discussion also extended onto Twitter, which provided a platform for users to engage with storm‐related information. In this research, we disseminated a questionnaire to residents of Atlantic Canada from late September to late October through Qualtrics, an online survey provider. The questionnaire explored how Twitter influenced respondents' (n = 1218) self‐reported informational behaviors (i.e., searching, sharing, and processing) and behavioral responses before, during, and after the storm. The results demonstrate that users' informational needs and preferences were closely related to their online behaviors. For example, conduits (i.e., those who both searched for and shared information) were highly proactive users who disseminated information about evacuations, recommended protective actions, and other official guidance more so than others. Conduits were also the most likely to heed official guidance in terms of their own preparedness and response. Amplifiers (i.e., those who only share information) and consumers (i.e., those who only search for information) were also motivated to take action by information they saw online, albeit at lower rates than conduits. Lastly, the results demonstrate that users can be positively influenced by information they see online even if they do not actively engage with it. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that Twitter users may interact with storm‐related information in more nuanced and complex ways than previously understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flooding is increasing worldwide, and with climate change, people need help understanding these changing conditions and that their flood risk may also change. This study extends the planned risk information seeking model (PRISM) into the flood risk domain and examines the antecedents that explain flood risk information seeking behavior. Using a survey reflective of the population in the state of Texas (N = 1079), this study includes an operationalization of risk perception specific to the complexity of floods and explores two key moderators in the PRISM model. Findings suggest that using PRISM to elaborate flood risk information seeking behaviors explains 48% of the variance in information seeking intent and 37% of the variance in affective risk perception. Using multigroup modeling, the findings also reveal that simply living in an area at high risk for floods does not significantly impact any relationships in the model. However, having experience with flooding increases the strength of risk perception paths—in particular, perceived probability of flood risk—and better explains flood risk information seeking. Suggestions for how to use communication to influence risk perceptions and information seeking, as well as future directions for research, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though significant research exists on earthquake hazard adjustment adoption more generally, research focused on how information seeking influences planned or actual preparedness behavior is rare, limiting our understanding of how information seeking translates into preparedness. To address this gap, our study tests a proposed model of household seismic hazard adjustment using questionnaire responses of roughly 400 households living in the Portland, OR metropolitan region. The proposed model includes components of the Protective Action Decision Model (PADM) with specific emphasis on past information seeking behavior, preparedness behavior, intentions to seek information, and intentions to take protective action. Other components include risk perception, earthquake experience, affective response, seismic risk zone residency, and demographics. Consistent with previous research, this study finds information seeking behavior to be the strongest influence on preparedness with other important influences being risk perception, affective response, and intentions to prepare. We find weak ties between risk zone residency and earthquake risk perception, though this may be because our sample has little experience with earthquakes and the majority live in the same earthquake risk zones. Importantly, longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether information seeking and intentions to prepare eventually result in household protective action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communicating complex information about environmental health risks in a single message is impossible. Thus, message designers hope that risk messages encourage people to think more about the message and risks, look for more information, and ultimately make behavior changes. The presentation of information about environmental risks using threat appeals is a common message design strategy thought to increase message engagement and influence attitudes, information seeking, and risk reduction behaviors. We compared lower threat messages, which did not include explicit statements about susceptibility and severity of a risk, to higher threat messages, which did. We combined predictions from the extended parallel process model with dual‐process theories of persuasion to examine whether people respond to these types of messages differently. In an online experiment, participants (N = 892) were randomly assigned to a message condition (higher or lower threat) and topic condition (arsenic, bisphenol A, or volatile organic compounds). Overall, participants exposed to higher threat messages (regardless of risk topic) reported experiencing higher levels of fear. Higher levels of fear were associated with more positive thoughts about the message (in alignment with the message advocacy) and fewer negative thoughts about the message (against the message advocacy), both of which influenced message attitudes. Finally, message attitudes were associated with increased information seeking and intentions to engage in risk reduction behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platforms offer emerging opportunities for disseminating information to improve decision‐making, motivate behavior changes, and enhance outcomes. However, consumer‐physician asymmetry and traditional service delivery principles create resource utilization conflicts that may hinder health value co‐creation efforts. We address how expert service contexts with high levels of information asymmetry may maximize value co‐creation by encouraging consumers' digital information usage to close the consumer‐physician information gap. Structural equation modeling of rural consumer surveys demonstrates the ancillary value created by supporting consumers' digital resource integration. The results identify how physicians may increase rural consumers' co‐creation of health outcomes by helping consumers utilize digital information to facilitate their activation in value co‐creation. However, physicians and consumers first need to share value perceptions of the digital inputs to maximize consumers' resource integration and co‐creation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic has witnessed the proliferation of a plethora of (mis)information on various media platforms and inconsistent crisis instructions from different sources. People consume crisis information from multiple channels and sources to better understand the situation and fact‐check COVID‐19 information. This study elucidates how Americans determine their preventive behaviours based on their information seeking and verifying behaviours during the pandemic. Our results were based on a US nationally representative sample (N = 856), and showed that proactive preventive behaviours (e.g., washing hands frequently) were positively affected by information‐seeking through interpersonal channels, news media, and the government, whereas avoidance preventive behaviours (e.g., avoiding social gatherings) were only positively affected by information‐seeking through news media. Crisis information verifying had positive effects on all types of preventive behaviours. Crisis managers are recommended to reach out to the public using appropriate channels and sources and facilitate individual's ability and motivation in verifying pandemic information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During health crises like the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid‐19) pandemic, it is crucial that individuals are able and willing to adequately respond to information. Individuals who deliberately seek information have an enhanced capacity to act on it and are capable of informed assessments of risks and self‐protective behaviors. In contrast, overexposure to Covid‐19 news as well as non‐seeking can constitute information‐related inequalities and hamper individuals' coping with the health crisis. Having this global health communication challenge in mind, our research aims to understand what characterizes non‐, medium, and frequent seekers, considering sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors, health status, affective risk responses, efficacy assessments, trust in information sources, and satisfaction with information. This study is based on data of the second wave of the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) Germany. Among 2602 participants, analysis revealed that 23.3% of the respondents did not actively seek information about Covid‐19, while 34.3% of them intensively monitored information. Nonseekers, compared to medium and frequent seekers, were characterized by a lower socioeconomic status, lower affective risk responses, lower perceived information‐related self‐efficacy, and lower trust in information sources. These findings provide indications for strategic health approaches and can guide initiatives to address adequate use of health information. Key Points: Identifying and characterizing groups differing in their frequency of Covid‐19 information seeking is relevant since being able and willing to adequately respond to information is crucial for combating health crises. 23.3% of respondents of a German representative study did not actively seek information, while 34.3% intensively monitored information about Covid‐19. Medium and frequent seekers of Covid‐19‐related information show similar preference patterns regarding the used sources, with public broadcasting being the preferred source of information about Covid‐19. Nonseekers, compared to medium and frequent seekers, were characterized by a lower socioeconomic status (SES), lower affective risk responses, lower perceived information‐related self‐efficacy, and lower trust in information sources. Planners of informational interventions, health communicators, as well as health professionals, need to be aware of the profiles of nonseekers as well as frequent seekers to find adequate strategies to overcome barriers and design adequate supportive information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Electronic cigarette (e‐cigarette) harm perceptions and information seeking behaviours are both important antecedents of e‐cigarette use, yet the relationship between them has been rarely studied. We assessed how absolute (e‐cigarettes are harmful to my health) and relative harm perceptions (e‐cigarettes are more/less harmful than cigarettes) were associated with specific e‐cigarette information seeking behaviours in a sample of current, former and never cigarette smokers. Methods: We used data from US adults in two cycles of the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS‐FDA 2015, n = 3738; 2017, n = 1736). Analyses controlled for socio‐demographics, ever e‐cigarette use and survey cycle. Data were analysed between January and August 2020. Results: Higher relative harm perceptions were associated with lower odds of having sought any information on e‐cigarettes [adjusted odds ratio 0.61, 95% confidence interval (0.48, 0.84)] and on how to use e‐cigarettes to quit smoking specifically [adjusted odds ratio 0.59, 95% confidence interval (0.38, 0.91)]. Smoking status did not moderate associations between absolute or relative harm perceptions and information seeking behaviours, nor was it associated with specific information seeking behaviours after adjusting for covariates. Discussion and Conclusions: The risks of e‐cigarettes relative to combusted cigarettes (as opposed to the absolute risks of e‐cigarettes) appear to be more important in individuals' information seeking behaviours about e‐cigarettes. Public health messages could ensure that all individuals understand how one's health risk would change if they exclusively used e‐cigarettes, switched to e‐cigarettes completely or used both products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Social networking sites (SNSs) provide users with a variety of opportunities to encounter political disagreement. One important factor of the encounters with disagreement could be social endorsements because SNS users can easily engage with other people's posts via functions, such as liking and retweeting. The goal of this study is to test the hypothesis by examining the relationship between social endorsements, exposure to political disagreement (XPD), and information seeking. Methods: We use a national survey conducted during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign. Ordinary least squares regression models are specified for analysis. Results: We find that SNS users who prefer reading political information endorsed by others are more likely to encounter political disagreement. We also find that XPD on SNSs encourages people to search for more information about the counter‐attitudinal posts, especially when the encountered disagreement is perceived to have good arguments and rationales. Conclusion: Overall, social endorsement enhances the probability of XPD on SNSs. This in turn facilitates individuals' search for more information, an important feature in democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Media use may strengthen parents' capacities to deal with parenting issues. This study examined which factors are associated with media use for parenting information. Design: Cross‐sectional data of 658 parents of children aged 0–8 years, gathered in the CIKEO cohort study in the Netherlands, were analysed. Methods: Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine which factors were associated with media use for parenting information. Results: The mean age of the participants was 33.8 years (SD = 5.0); 94.7% were mothers; 77.4% used media for parenting information. Parents with more questions or concerns (OR: 1.40, 95% CI: 1.23, 1.59), and parents who received parenting information from their social contacts (OR: 5.57, 95% CI: 3.22, 9.61), had higher odds of media use for parenting information. Older parents (OR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.91, 1.00), and parents of older children (OR: 0.84, 95% CI: 0.74, 0.95), had lower odds of media use for parenting information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive–behavioural models of health anxiety propose a positive association between information seeking and health anxiety; however, it is unclear the extent to which cognitive mechanisms may mediate this relationship. Catastrophic cognitions are one type of cognition that may mediate this relationship, and the COVID‐19 pandemic has presented an opportunity to examine these relationships within the context of a global health catastrophe. The current study investigated both cross‐sectional (N = 797) and longitudinal (n = 395) relationships between information seeking, health anxiety and catastrophizing during the pandemic. Data were collected using Amazon Mechanical Turk during April and May 2020. Information seeking and health anxiety were positively associated both cross‐sectionally and longitudinally (rs =.25–.29). Catastrophic cognitions significantly mediated the relationship between information seeking and health anxiety both cross‐sectionally and longitudinally. Developing effective methods of reducing information seeking and catastrophizing may serve to reduce health anxiety during global health crises such as the current pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship on politics and romance has found that political homophily between couples is due to social sorting (i.e., people seeking politically like‐minded partners from the outset). However, it remains unclear how people do so in an online context. Based on interviews with dating app users in Hong Kong, this study explores individuals' self‐presentation and partner‐vetting strategies in their quests for politically like‐minded partners in a highly polarized political environment. The study reveals that political participation and knowledge have become sexual capital on dating apps, and self‐censorship has begun to emerge in citizens' private use of social media in the city. Finally, this study proposes a typology along the dimensions of effectiveness and riskiness to categorize various self‐presentation and partner‐vetting strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research suggests that when individuals have limited knowledge to make sense of new or emerging technologies, they may rely more on available cues, such as the fairness of those managing the risks, when developing their attitudinal and behavioral responses to the technology. To examine this further, we designed an online experiment (N = 1,042) to test the effects of risk managers' nonoutcome fairness on individuals' selective exposure to additional information and perceived risk. As the study context, we used the development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), which uses drilling to tap deep underground sources of heat for district heating and electricity and remains low in familiarity among the U.S. public. The results suggest that participants who read about the fair risk manager were subsequently more likely to have positive attitudes toward EGS development. In turn, those with more positive attitudes were more likely to select and read positively valenced articles about EGS, resulting in an indirect effect of the fairness condition. Although this study also explored whether uncertainty moderated this fairness effect on information seeking, it found no evidence. Additionally, when participants were exposed to information featuring fair risk managers, perceived risk decreased, an effect that was mediated by beliefs that EGS was controllable and not dreadful. These results underscore the importance of using practices that will increase nonoutcome fairness in the introduction of new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisms need to constantly balance the competing demands of gathering information and using previously acquired information to obtain rewarding outcomes (i.e., the "exploration–exploitation" dilemma). Exploration is critical to obtain information to discover how the world works, which should be particularly important for young children. While studies have shown that young children explore in response to surprising events, little is known about how they balance exploration and exploitation across multiple decisions or about how this process changes with development. In this study, we compare decision‐making patterns of children and adults and evaluate the relative influences of reward seeking, random exploration, and systematic switching (which approximates uncertainty‐directed exploration). In a second experiment, we directly test the effect of uncertainty on children's choices. Influential models of decision‐making generally describe systematic exploration as a computationally refined capacity that relies on top‐down cognitive control. We demonstrate that (a) systematic patterns dominate young children's behavior (facilitating exploration), despite protracted development of cognitive control; and (b) that uncertainty plays a major, but complicated, role in determining children's choices. We conclude that while young children's immature top‐down control should hinder adult‐like systematic exploration, other mechanisms may pick up the slack, facilitating broad information gathering in a systematic fashion to build a foundation of knowledge for use later in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Internet is a preferred source of physical activity (PA) information. However, limited research exists regarding the experiences of parents of children and youth with disabilities (CYWD) in searching for PA programme information online. This research examined the experiences and preferences of parents of CYWD in searching for PA programme information online. Method: Parents of CYWD (n = 10) participated in a think‐aloud exercise while searching for PA programme information online. Following the think‐aloud exercise, semi‐structured interviews were used to further understand parents' experiences and preferences in searching for PA programme information online. Results: Parents identified key features that contributed to a positive online search experience. Additionally, parents noted challenges and resulting negative affect that was experienced. Conclusions: This research can inform the development and dissemination of online PA programme information that is accessible and relevant to the preferences of parents of CYWD and can facilitate positive search experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changing human behavior is essential for biodiversity conservation, but robust approaches for large scale change are needed. Concepts like repeat message exposure and social reinforcement, as well as mechanisms like online news coverage and targeted advertisements, are currently used by private and public sectors, and could prove powerful for conservation. Thus, to explore their potential in influencing wildlife consumption, we used online advertisements through Facebook, Google, and Outbrain, to promote news articles discussing the use of a Critically Endangered antelope (the Saiga tatarica) as a traditional Chinese medicine in Singapore. Our message, tailored to middle‐aged Chinese Singaporean women, framed saiga horn products as being no longer socially endorsed. Through advert performance and in‐depth analyses of Facebook user engagement, we assessed audience response. Our message pervaded Singapore's online media (e.g., our adverts were shown almost five million times; and the story ran on seven news outlets), and resulted in widespread desirable audience responses (e.g., 63% of Facebook users' engagements included identifiably positive features like calls for public action to reduce saiga horn consumption, anger at having unknowingly used a Critically Endangered species, and self‐pledges to no longer use it; only 13% of engagements included identifiably negative features). This work shows that targeted dissemination of online news articles can have promising results, and may have wide applicability to conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When deciding whether to vaccinate, people often seek information through consequential processes that are not currently well understood. A survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (N = 2,091) explored the factors associated with intentions to seek influenza vaccine information in the 2018–2019 influenza season. This survey shed light on what motivates intentions to seek information about the influenza vaccine through the lens of the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model. The model explained information‐seeking intentions well among both unvaccinated and vaccinated respondents. Key findings show that informational subjective norms, information insufficiency, and different types of affect are strong predictors of information‐seeking intentions. Theoretical insights on extending the RISP model and practical guidance on designing interventions are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active social communication is an effective way for infants to learn about the world. Do pre‐verbal and pre‐pointing infants seek epistemic information from their social partners when motivated to obtain information they cannot discover independently? The present study investigated whether 12‐month‐olds (N = 30) selectively seek information from knowledgeable adults in situations of referential uncertainty. In a live experiment, infants were introduced to two unfamiliar adults, an Informant (reliably labeling objects) and a Non‐Informant (equally socially engaging, but ignorant about object labels). At test, infants were asked to make an impossible choice—locate a novel referent among two novel objects. When facing epistemic uncertainty—but not at other phases of the procedure—infants selectively referred to the Informant rather than the Non‐Informant. These results show that pre‐verbal infants use social referencing to actively and selectively seek information from social partners as part of their interrogative communicative toolkit. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/23dLPsa-fAY [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personal computer use for educational purposes by the healthcare professions students has become ubiquitous. Although the effect of computer‐based dissection instructions has been studied, there is a paucity of information regarding student browsing habits of information available on the Internet. Although current students have favorable attitudes toward accessing anatomical information online, web browsing habits have not yet been investigated specifically in the dissection laboratory setting. The purpose of this study was to describe the browsing habits of the healthcare professions students in the gross anatomy setting using a retrospective analysis. Files containing web browser history were retrieved from desktop computers in the gross anatomy laboratory and custom code was written to parse them into comma separated value files. Each web address was categorized and descriptive statistics was calculated. Browser history for 24 computers was analyzed from June 2013 to January 2015. During this period, students accumulated 100,857 webpage visits. Most often, students performed a Google search for anatomy (22.0% of all visits) and non‐anatomy related (20.6% of all visits) information. Students also used the web browser to access various entertainment (16.4% of all visits) and productivity related services (15.9% of all visits). This analysis revealed a large volume of webpage visits by the healthcare professions students in the gross anatomy laboratory. A wide diversity of anatomy and non‐anatomy related webpages were visited. Future analyses could be directed at examination of when in relation to class time students accessed the information, how browsing habits change over time, and what anatomical structures were most commonly searched for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study draws on the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model (PRISM) to assess Zika virus information seeking and systematic processing, paying particular attention to the relationship between perceived knowledge and knowledge insufficiency. Novel risks, such as Zika, provide an interesting context for examining whether information‐seeking models, such as PRISM, are able to predict information seeking when available information is limited or scarce. A cross‐sectional, online study of men and women of childbearing age (N = 494) residing in the state of Florida was conducted. Our results provide some support for the PRISM for predicting Zika information seeking intention, as well as systematic processing of information. We also found that individuals with high levels of perceived knowledge were more likely to report high level of knowledge insufficiency, illustrating that contextual factors may impact the fit of risk information seeking models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Older adults with cancer have unique information and supportive care needs. There is a growing body of literature regarding the use of Internet health information, but less is known about the use of the Internet for cancer information amongst older adults with cancer. Materials and methods: This is a secondary analysis of qualitative data from a mixed‐methods study of the use of cancer‐related Internet information amongst adults with cancer. In the present study, we include transcripts from two samples: 34 interviews with adults over age 55 (n = 17) with cancer, and interviews and focus groups with healthcare professionals (n = 21). Data were analysed using thematic analysis with an interest in age‐related themes. Results: Our findings are grouped into three main themes: (a) independently augmenting healthcare services and supports; (b) supporting and situating information; and (c) mobilising family and support networks. Patients and healthcare providers described cancer‐related Internet information as a beneficial resource to address gaps in information and supplement information from healthcare professionals from diagnosis and throughout treatment. Older adults reported using cancer‐related Internet information to manage their cancer experience, although sometimes feeling technologically hesitant. However, healthcare professionals felt older adults were less likely than younger patients to seek cancer information from the Internet. Conclusion: The use of cancer‐related Internet information is growing amongst older adults with cancer. Older adults mobilise technology uniquely. Healthcare professionals can support these efforts by being aware and through initiating dialogue about information preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thailand is gradually becoming an attractive market for organic food as tourists from different parts of the world try to experience unique food items. However, the attitude of local consumers toward buying organic food is not encouraging. Lack of information and trust on organic food procedures are probably the main factors influencing the local consumers. In this article, the role of information need, information seeking, and consumer's trust on attitude toward buying organic food were studied. Moreover, this study also checked the moderating role of price barrier in given relationships which was not previously discussed in literature. Data, collected from 292 tourists and residents in Thailand through questionnaire and responses, were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Results highlighted that all the three independent variables, information need, information seeking, and consumer's trust, have significant impact on attitude toward buying organic food. Price barrier only proved as a significant moderator in the relationship between information need and consumer's attitude toward buying organic food while it proved insignificant in other two relationships. This study also includes implications in industry, consumers, academia, and future research indications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Although significant scholarly attention has been devoted to understanding subordinates' information seeking from supervisors, researchers have not paid adequate attention to information sharing by supervisors. Moreover, research on supervisors' information sharing behavior has focused almost exclusively on work‐related information sharing, disregarding supervisors' sharing of information not related to work (e.g., that related to family). Drawing on self‐disclosure theory, we argue that supervisors share both work‐related and nonwork information with their subordinates and propose that these two forms of information sharing are conceptually distinct. Furthermore, to unravel the role of supervisors' nonwork information sharing, we develop an interactive model to test how it may be associated with important employee outcomes. We conducted pilot studies using five samples and, through a sixth study, tested the hypothesized model using a four‐wave data collection design. This study makes three major contributions to research and theory. First, it integrates information sharing and information seeking literatures. Second, it underlines the importance of supervisors' nonwork information sharing in organizations by testing its direct and interactive effects. Third, it contributes to theory by presenting trust as a mechanism that links information disclosure in dyads. Results obtained using structural equation modeling generally supported the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When someone encounters an explanation perceived as weak, this may lead to a feeling of deprivation or tension that can be resolved by engaging in additional learning. This study examined to what extent children respond to weak explanations by seeking additional learning opportunities. Seven‐ to ten‐year‐olds (N = 81) explored questions and explanations (circular or mechanistic) about 12 animals using a novel Android tablet application. After rating the quality of an initial explanation, children could request and receive additional information or return to the main menu to choose a new animal to explore. Consistent with past research, there were both developmental and IQ‐related differences in how children evaluated explanation quality. But across development, children were more likely to request additional information in response to circular explanations than mechanistic explanations. Importantly, children were also more likely to request additional information in direct response to explanations that they themselves had assigned low ratings, regardless of explanation type. In addition, there was significant variability in both children's explanation evaluation and their exploration, suggesting important directions for future research. The findings support the deprivation theory of curiosity and offer implications for education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information seeking (IS) has become a critical activity in video‐based environments. Up to now, the effects of support on information seeking (i.e., scaffolding) have seldom been assessed. The twofold aim of the current study was to (a) assess the effects of scaffolding on IS in videos and (b) determine the characteristics of the users' mental models after an IS activity with or without scaffolding. We divided 50 participants into two groups that either did or did not benefit from initial scaffolding during an IS task. Both groups then had to perform a localization task without any further access to scaffolding. Results showed that scaffolding the video by providing a table of contents and markers on a timeline helped students to engage in highly efficient IS, but they had less accurate mental representations of the video than those without scaffolding. The hypothesis that scaffolding provides a usable but external model was therefore supported. Lay Description: What is already known about this topic: Videos are increasingly used in learning.Searching for information in videos may be a complex activity.So far, very few studies have been conducted on the potential effect of scaffolding videos during an information‐seeking (IS) task. What this paper adds: In this study, we put in place the scaffolding of the video by adding a table of contents and markers on the timeline.Structuration and segmentation have positive effects on the performance in IS, in terms of response success, time spent on each search, relevance, and perceived difficulty.Scaffolding has a negative impact on the users' internal representations of the video. Implications for practice: Incorporating a table of contents and a structured timeline into a video facilitates the search activity.Without scaffolding, the search activity is longer and cognitively more costly.Paradoxically, users have a poorer representation of the video (i.e., poorer mental model) after the IS task when they were given scaffolding.Future studies should focus on the benefits of providing structuring and segmentation in learning tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]