Web Searches Impact 'Cyberchondria,' Study Finds
Microsoft researchers have concluded that Internet search engines have the potential to heighten Web users' medical concerns and that escalation is influenced by "the amount and distribution of medical content viewed by users, the presence of escalatory terminology in pages visited, and a user’s predisposition to escalate versus to seek more reasonable explanations for ailments." The new study of "cyberchondria," which Microsoft describes as "the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptomatology, based on the review of search results and literature on the Web," involved 515 individuals.
"Our findings underscore the potential costs and challenges of cyberchondria and suggest actionable design implications that hold opportunity for improving the search and navigation experience for people turning to the Web to interpret common symptoms," the researchers stated. Search engine architects have a responsibility to ensure users do not experience unnecessary concern generated by ranking algorithms their engines use, the study concluded. Web engineers must be "focused on serving medical search results that are reliable, complete, and timely, as well as topically relevant," they said.
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