Searching for good mood: Examining relationships between search task and mood

We analyzed mood changes before, during and after online information search and examined effects of search tasks' type on the mood. Searchers' mood was measured using the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). Search tasks were characterized by the topic, sequence in a search process, difficulty level, and searcher's interest in a task. Our analysis indicates that participants' mood remained stable during the course of the search and was not affected by the search task topic, sequence in a search process, difficulty level and searchers' interest level. Our findings suggest that searching is a complex experience and factors outside of the search task domain may contribute to searcher's mood.

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