Christopher A Kelly

All Publications

• Web-browsing patterns reflect and shape mood and mental health. Nature human behaviour Kelly, C. A., Sharot, T. 2024

  Abstract

  Humans spend on average 6.5 hours a day online. A large portion of that time is dedicated to information-seeking. How does this activity impact mental health? We assess this over four studies (n = 1,145). We reveal that the valence of information sought affects mental health, which in turn influences the valence of information sought, forming a self-reinforcing loop. We quantified the valence of text on webpages participants chose to browse using natural language processing and found that browsing more negative information was associated with worse mental health and mood. By manipulating the webpages browsed and measuring mood and vice versa, we show that the relationship is causal and bidirectional. Finally, we developed an intervention that altered web-browsing patterns in a manner that improved mood. Together, the findings suggest that the information sought reflects mental state and shapes it, creating a loop that may perpetuate mental health problems. The results also provide a potential method for assessing and enhancing welfare in the digital age.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41562-024-02065-6

  View details for PubMedID 39572688

  View details for PubMedCentralID 7485771

• "How" web searches change under stress. Scientific reports Kelly, C. A., Blain, B., Sharot, T. 2024; 14 (1): 15147

  Abstract

  To adjust to stressful environments, people seek information. Here, we show that in response to stressful public and private events the high-level features of information people seek online alter, reflecting their motives for seeking knowledge. We first show that when people want information to guide action they selectively ask "How" questions. Next, we reveal that "How" searches submitted to Google increased dramatically during the pandemic (controlling for search volume). Strikingly, the proportion of these searches predicted weekly self-reported stress of ~17K individuals. To rule out third factors we manipulate stress and find that "How" searches increase in response to stressful, personal, events. The findings suggest that under stress people ask questions to guide action, and mental state is reflected in features that tap into why people seek information rather than the topics they search for. Tracking such features may provide clues regrading population stress levels.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41598-024-65895-4

  View details for PubMedID 38956247

• Individual differences in information-seeking. Nature communications Kelly, C. A., Sharot, T. 2021; 12 (1): 7062

  Abstract

  Vast amounts of personalized information are now available to individuals. A vital research challenge is to establish how people decide what information they wish to obtain. Here, over five studies examining information-seeking in different domains we show that information-seeking is associated with three diverse motives. Specifically, we find that participants assess whether information is useful in directing action, how it will make them feel, and whether it relates to concepts they think of often. We demonstrate that participants integrate these assessments into a calculation of the value of information that explains information seeking or its avoidance. Different individuals assign different weights to these three factors when seeking information. Using a longitudinal approach, we find that the relative weights assigned to these information-seeking motives within an individual show stability over time, and are related to mental health as assessed using a battery of psychopathology questionnaires.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-27046-5

  View details for PubMedID 34862360

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC8642448