Psychological aspects of information seeking on the Internet

Abstract

Two studies are presented that investigate information seeking behaviour on the Internet. In Study One, soccer fans’ information seeking on the World Wide Web (WWW) is investigated. In Study Two, access rates to a cancer information website are analysed. It is tentatively argued that there is a tendency for people to access information more commonly avoided in ‘real life’, although in the case of football fans, the tendency to ‘bask in reflected glory’ remains when online, while cutting off reflected failure is minimised. Implications for understanding and researching psychological processes of web browsing behaviour are discussed