Media Effects Research Lab - Research Archive
Are you in the mood for search?
Student Researcher(s)
Mimi Zhang (Ph.D Candidate);
Chung Hun Lee (Ph.D Candidate);
Chen-Ya Wang (Ph.D Candidate);
Faculty Supervisor
Human is emotional. Our affective feelings can shape our perceptions, cognitions and behaviors, which in turn influence the way we process information and make decisions. However, there is no empirical study in the information search field examining what are the exact influences of mood on people's information seeking behavior. The current trend in human information behavior is to study affective computing. Thus, we will fill the gap and follow the trend to study the influence of mood over the information seeking process in the Web environment. We conducted an controlled lab study to test our hypotheses drawn from three theories: affect as information, affect as prime, and mood management. Twenty-nine participants (eleven females and eighteen males) were recruited and randomly assigned to happy or sad condition. In the beginning, they were primed with certai! n mood. After that they performed a search task and finished a series of questionnaire. Our study showed we have successfully manipulated the mood. There was no difference in valence of desired information between happy and sad mood. Only women in happy mood were likely to process more global information. Self-esteem did not mediate the relationship between mood and use of global/local information. Only women in happy mood were likely to use more primes. There was no difference in valence of used prime between happy and sad mood. This is an ongoing study. In the near future, we would hope to get more participants and explore more in-depth on the gender differences.
For more details regarding the study contact
Dr. S. Shyam Sundar by e-mail at sss12@psu.edu or by telephone at (814) 865-2173