Why the Web tells us what we already know
January 24, 2008The Internet is not the font of all knowledge, despite the plethora of information available at your fingertips.
Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia have found that while Internet searches do bring up a variety of useful materials, people pay more attention to information that matches their pre-existing beliefs.
“Even if people read the right material, they are stubborn to changing their views,” said one of the authors, UNSW Professor Enrico Coiera. “This means that providing people with the right information on its own may not be enough.”
The research considered how people use Internet search engines to answer health questions.
“We know that the web is increasingly being used by people to help them make healthcare decisions,” said Professor Coiera. “We know that there can be negative consequences if people find the wrong information, especially as people in some countries can now self-medicate by ordering drugs online. Australians can order complementary medicines online and these can interfere with other medications.”
“Our research shows that, even if search engines do find the ‘right’ information, people may still draw the wrong conclusions – in other words, their conclusions are biased.”
What also matters is where the information appears in the search results and how much time a person spends looking at it, according to the research which has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
“The first or the last document the user sees has a much greater impact on their decisions,” said Professor Coiera, who is the Director of the Centre for Health Informatics at UNSW.
Dr Annie Lau worked with Professor Coiera to design an interface to help people make sense of the information which they are presented with and to break down these decision biases.
“The new search engine interface we have designed could be a part of any search engine and allows people to organise the information they find, and as a result organise their thoughts better,” said Professor Coiera.
While the research was conducted in the area of health, Professor Coiera said the results – and the technology – are applicable to other fields too.
The research on the interface will be publicly available within a year.
Source: University of New South Wales
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Yes, you can find confirmation for any prejudice you bring to this medium. You can also find the refutation of any such prejudice. It's all a question of motivation. If you want to find what passes for the truth, you have a better chance of finding it here than anywhere else on the planet.
And when we read concerns about self-medication/treatment, I really want to rip their 'king heads off! At least some of us go looking for the information, unlike many of the Doctors we know. My mother is a case in point. She suffers from a debilitating case of Lupus and has so many complications that she is now effectively untreatable.
A few years back she was prescribed one thing for one of her problems and something else for another. She started experiencing palpitations. I suggested she use the web to research the drug combination she'd been given and sure enough she found references to known problems with the combination which produced high blood pressure, palpitations and in an alarming number of cases, premature death.
She stopped taking one of the drugs immediately and confronted her doctor with the evidence. He did his own research and sheepishly admitted that the combination was indeed potentially lethal. If she hadn't self treated, it is unlikely she'd still be here today.
I have successfully pioneered self treatment of my own severe plaque problem with Manuka honey, after consulting the primary authority on the material (Dr Peter Molan - Waikato University) - across the web; and I have used web based data to diagnose and suppress my tendency to acid blood and gout. In the process, I have learned that there are not only severe shortcomings with the web based information but with information about the effects of diet on blood acidity/alkalinity generally. The definitive research simply hasn't been done. I'm actually trying to motivate fellow travelers into some collaborative research of our own. Something I couldn't even begin to do without the web.
The web isn't just a tool. It isn't just the biggest repository of information (and garbage) we've ever created. It is the basis of the most profound cultural evolution in human history. Nothing prior to the web has had an effect to compare with the effect the web is beginning to have. Hang on to your hats, because it's only just begun and we're in for a hell of a ride...