Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This research examines the influence of perceived risk and efficacy on cancer information seeking. It draws upon the Risk Perception Attitude framework and explores the interactive effects of perceived risk and efficacy and differences in information seeking among four attitude groups (responsive, avoidance, proactive, indifference) formed by crossing high and low in perceived risk and efficacy. Analysis of the 2003 Health Information National Trend Survey (HINTS) found no interaction between perceived risk and efficacy. Perceived risk is a significant predictor of information seeking, whereas perceived efficacy has no impact. Different attitude groups do differ in their information seeking behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The goal of this study was to examine whether high and low sensation seekers differ in the quantity and quality of the information they seek about potential romantic partners described in personal ad-like vignettes. 393 individuals between the ages of 18 and 28 each evaluated nine written descriptions of potential romantic partners. Some of the partners were described with only attractive characteristics, some with only risky characteristics, and some with a mixture of attractive and risky characteristics. Compared to low sensation seekers, high sensation seekers rated the partners as more attractive and gave higher likelihood ratings of going on a date and having sex with the partner, but lower likelihood ratings of getting infected with an STD/HIV. Respondents tended to ask for more information about partners they found attractive and less detail on those they did not find attractive. Further, the valence of the information requested became more positive as the partner was described in increasingly positive terms. High sensation seekers consistently sought more information about potential partners than did low sensation seekers, and were also more likely to seek information about risky attributes of the potential partner, e.g., multiple sex partners or drug use. Implications for internet dating and for disease prevention campaigns are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study examines a possible theoretical mechanism through which health information seeking as well as health information exposure through routine use of media (called scanning) may affect cancer-related prevention and screening behaviors. Data came from a survey conducted among a list-assisted, national random digit dial-recruited panel of adults, ages 40-70 (N = 1,753). Outcomes were intentions to perform cancer prevention (exercise, diet, fruit and vegetable consumption) and screening behaviors (PSA test, colonoscopy, mammogram) The proposed theoretical mechanisms for the relationship between the seeking and scanning measures and the outcomes is the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Our results showed that seeking and scanning behaviors were associated with intention to perform each preventative or screening behavior. Furthermore, these relationships were substantially (in the case of seeking) and almost completely (in the case of scanning) mediated by attitude, social norm, and perceived behavioral control. The implications of the findings for future research in this area were discussed.

Publication Type: Session Paper
Abstract: The Internet provides a magnificent engine for information seeking for just about everything, from replacement parts and obscure facts to interpersonal information. That the Internet provides modes for initiating and managing relationships is a fact (see Duck, 2008). More and more new applications come into being for the primary purpose of gathering and sharing personal information to friends and acquaintances, to discover and appraise possible social partners, and to maintain relationships. As a result of these new applications, people are able to gather not just more, but different kinds of information about others than the Internet, or other conversational means, formerly allowed. Not long ago, the interpersonal information people exchanged online was verbal (typed), and under the relatively complete control of the sender: What you said about yourself, explicitly or implicitly, was reflected in your email, your discussion-board postings, or your chat room comments. The early World Wide Web added more modalities—photos and linking—and although control remained with the page author, the effects of additional visual information produced complex effects on impressions and relations. As the Internet has developed, more information about people becomes available through involuntary sources—database archives of past behavioral traces and third-party comments—that further complicate issues of control and the impact of information. The manner in which people use these archives and socially-shared commenting systems can be understood conceptually by mapping their actions and online resources to a model of Internet information seeking strategies. This manuscript examines recent models, findings, and promising new research directions related to the way people seek and share interpersonal information via the Internet. It will attempt to illuminate that social information-seeking phenomena (seeking personal, interpersonal, and descriptive information about other people) via the Internet sometimes results in counter-intuitive effects on basic impressions and evaluations of others. These ironic effects of more information, particularly the influence of photos, raise challenges for traditional models of computer-mediated communication, and add interesting new boundaries to the model of hyperpersonal communication in online settings. This manuscript further examines a recent model of online information seeking that expands the traditional typology of information seeking strategies, and encompasses new applications like search engines, databases, and social networking sites. Finally, it examines new concepts and new directions in research premised on the notion that the Internet now often presents multiple information sources—information by target people and information about target people left by others—and how these developments, too, may affect social information seeking and social information processing on the Internet.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: There is some evidence to suggest that sensation seeking, a variable that has previously been associated with tendency for risky health behavior, is a predictor of intercultural contact-seeking behavior (Arasaratnam, 2004; 2005; Morgan & Arasaratnam, 2003). The present study explores this line of research further by depicting previous findings in the form of a path model and introducing an additional variable, ethnocentrism, into the model. Four hypotheses were proposed and the results from multiple regression analyses supported all hypotheses. The implications of the new findings are discussed.