Abstract
It is now common knowledge that information on the World Wide Web is used by people to acquire facts before making decisions—a key activity being forming impressions about other people. Given this, an interesting question arises as to whether and how such impressions may be biased by the characteristics of the information source itself. For instance, in the case of search results about a person, do the quantity and order of results affect the impression formed about the person in question? The question takes on significance considering that these factors may affect decisions of considerable importance and tangible consequence such as those regarding employment, for example, and at the same time, such factors are largely outside the control of the individuals affected. In this paper we refer to searchable digital information about a person on the Web as ePersona, and the impression formed about the person based on the perception as ePerception. Using Web search results, we studied the impacts of order and quantity of results on ePerception using an experiment. Our findings suggest that the order or ranking of results about a search target impacts the impression formed about that target. We also found that the quantity of search results alone does not seem to impact the impression formed.
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Appendices
Appendix A1. Personality traits and associated behavioral characteristics
Appendix A2. Sample google search
….SJSU MIS course... |
... 53 MIS students who participated in the case competition as a part of BUS 119B: ……Student76, Student 654, Student345, Student664…..Student1 and Student2, … |
www.cob.sjsu.edu/courses/MIS… Cached—Similar pages |
Personal Page |
Student1. This is a site where I will post content related to my education at SJSU. Since, I am also involved in team sports such as... |
http://www.students.sjsu.edu/~Student1 Cached—Similar pages |
2007 MIS Graduation Party |
The MIS Graduation Party organized by Student1, Student 43 and Student5 |
www.cob.sjsu.edu/mis/graduation_party Cached—Similar pages |
Newletter: Student1 Leland High School… |
High school teacher, Teacher1, volunteers at the local SPCA….seen here with Student4, Student1, Student5, Student 65…. |
www.angelfire.com/wi8/goldenkey/newsletter.htm Cached—Similar pages |
Spartan Daily |
...Student1 of San Jose State…. |
https://www.spartandaily.com/printer/article.asp?c=77863 Cached—Similar pages |
MySpace.com—Student55—IE—www.myspace.com/phlaimeaux |
Student1—A student at West Valley College who later enrolled at San Jose State…. |
profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=424677 Cached—Similar pages |
Student55 | Facebook |
… with Student 6, Student1, Student7…. |
www.facebook.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=421235 Cached—Similar pages |
Spartan Football Fan Blog |
….Student1 just HAD to drive...got to the game like just before halftime cuz he got us hella lost in… |
Student100.blogspot.com Cached—Similar pages |
DVC Student Forum |
….the party was like OMG with the hotties but Student1 was still dragging down about the whole thing…...made us leave before they even STARTED the shots… |
dvc.edu/studentforum/messageid?2335 Cached—Similar pages |
SJSU Alpha Beta Gamma Newsletter |
…went to a football game with some people including Student8, Student98 and…. Student1 missed the bus and arrived late… |
http://www.sjsu.edu/orgs/alphabetagamma Cached—Similar pages |
Appendix A3: Sample screen shot with google search results
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Venkatsubramanyan, S., Hill, T.R. An empirical investigation into the effects of web search characteristics on decisions associated with impression formation. Inf Syst Front 12, 579–593 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-009-9177-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-009-9177-9