Enhanced Information Scent, Selective Discounting, or Consummate Breakdown: The Psychological Effects of Web-Based Search Results

Abstract

We report results from three experiments that broadly examined Web users' psychological responses to search results featured on a mock search engine. Study 1 examined the interplay between search result relevance and ad relevance and showed that the former is the critical variable in affecting user attitudes toward both the search engine and the ad. Study 2 offered further evidence regarding the overwhelming influence of search relevance, with study results suggesting that neither individual motivations nor ad relevance played a significant role in affecting user attitudes. Finally, Study 3 supported the proposition that the persuasiveness of a relevant text-based ad appearing with relevant search results can be enhanced by adding a visual image to the ad. We point out the implications of the findings and recommend future directions for media effects research in the domain of search engines.

Notes

1. To ensure that the thought-listing measure was valid as a measure of involvement in that it was recording thoughts about the search engine and its content rather than unrelated thoughts, we coded all of the 1,397 thoughts listed by the study's 276 participants. Of these, all but one listed thought pertained to participants' perceptions of either the search engine or the results it displayed. For further verification, we employed two independent coders who were blind to the study's experimental conditions, provided them a subset of 600 listed thoughts from the study (43% of the total thoughts), and asked them to list whether each thought pertained to perceptions of the search engine, evaluation of the search results, or any other extraneous matter. The coders' analysis was consistent with our expectations, and agreement between the two coders was high (r = .90).