Research On Behavior Characteristics And Influence Mechanism Of Biased Information Search From The Perspective Of Task

With the development and popularization of the Internet,online information search has become one of the important ways for people to obtain information daily.In real life,people often interact with people with consistent thinking.But in the virtual network environment,people can search,exchange and share information more widely and evenly,so the possibility of contacting inconsistent information is greatly increased.Therefore,some scholars have proposed that searching for information in the network environment may cause users to tend to search for information that is consistent with their original beliefs,attitudes,assumptions or expectations.This behavior is called biased information search,which is a phenomenon of selective contact with search results in the online information search behavior.This study attempts to explore the influence mechanism and behavioral performance of biased information search behavior driven by task.Then try to explore the specific performance and search effect of the biased information search behavior,and whether different task characteristics will affect the occurrence of biased information search behavior.This research attempts to reduce the risk of users making wrong decisions due to cognitive bias in the information search process,improve user search efficiency,and provide theoretical guidance for promoting the healthy development of information search activities.This research uses experimental methods and questionnaire survey methods to design information search tasks in two scenarios: explanatory and decision-making.A detailed analysis of the biased information search is carried out,and the behavior characteristics and influence mechanism of the biased information search are explored through descriptive statistics,difference analysis,and comparative analysis.The behavior characteristics mainly include process characteristics and result presentation.The influence mechanism is explained from the task characteristics level.The main conclusions of this research are as follows:(1)Process characteristics of biased information search behavior: In terms of search platform,it is consistent with the conventional information search process.There are a variety of browser options,and they are generally highly dependent on Baidu search engine,and they are accustomed to directly using the browser's own search engine.In general,there are few changes to browsers and retrieval platforms.In terms of search formula construction,the individuals who generate biased information search use phrase search formulas in the highest proportion,and use sentence form more than conventional information search.When faced with tasks with high cognitive difficulty,the number of retrieval formula reconstructions will increase significantly.In terms of browsing search results,when faced with tasks with higher cognitive difficulty,users will continue to restructure search formulas to generate a higher number of web page clicks.Individuals who generate biased information search are more dissatisfied with the search results,resulting in a high percentage of page returns.In terms of overall behavior patterns,the return result pattern and the reconstruction retrieval pattern appear the most.In tasks with high cognitive difficulty,there will be more in-depth link modes,using vertical retrieval strategies instead of horizontally expanding retrieval platforms.For the selection of information conclusions,when the task is difficult,users will learn from and integrate the information in the search process,but when the task is simple,they often form conclusions based on their own opinions and attitudes.In addition,demographics based on gender,educational background,and discipline have a weaker influence on behavioral processes,but there are still certain differences.(2)In the presentation of the results of biased information search behaviors,users who use biased information search in difficult tasks will make more effort,but the degree of satisfaction after the final search varies greatly.In terms of cognitive changes,the more individuals use biased information searching methods,the more they will be exposed to information that supports their own opinions and attitudes,and ultimately,enhanced cognitive changes will appear.However,if an individual chooses to search for information in an objective and unbiased manner,it will increase the probability of cognitive changes,resulting in adverse cognitive changes.In addition,regardless of whether there is a biased information search,individuals may show a state of assimilation to make reasonable fine-tuning of cognition.(3)Many factors in the task characteristics will affect the appearance of the biased information search.From the internal characteristics of the task,the characteristics of the task environment and the characteristics of the task performer,we can see that the task goals,the consistency of the information environment and the existing knowledge and capabilities have an impact on the behavior.The complexity of task goals positively affects the appearance of bias information search.The consistency of the information environment will positively affect the generation of biased information search behavior.Existing knowledge and capabilities will negatively affect the generation of biased information search.In addition,information quality,cognitive style,preference of public consistency,cognitive state and existing knowledge and capabilities will regulate the above influence relationships.The influence of the consistency of the information environment on the behavior of biased information search is regulated by the information quality.The higher the quality of the information,the stronger the degree of this influence.The influence of the consistency of the information environment on the behavior of biased information search is regulated by cognitive style.The closer the cognitive style is to the field-dependent type,the stronger the degree of this influence.The influence of the consistency of the information environment on the behavior of biased information search is also regulated by the preference of public consistency.The higher the preference of public consistency,the stronger the degree of this influence.The influence of task goal on the behavior of biased information search is regulated by cognitive state.In the case of cognitive dissonance,the higher the task complexity,the higher the proportion of biased information search behavior;but in the case of cognitive coordination,the task goal complexity has a reverse effect on the biased information search behavior.The impact of task goal on the behavior of biased information search is regulated by existing knowledge and capabilities.The lower the existing knowledge and capabilities,the stronger the degree of this influence.