The emotional impact of search tasks

Abstract

In this paper we consider the emotional impact of search tasks within Information Retrieval experiments. We study how search tasks of different types lead to different emotionalresponses by experimental participants and study the interaction between emotions and other subjective search variables. We show that some search tasks can lead to negative emotional responses whilst others are characterised by positive experiences. We discuss these findings with respect to how experiments are designed and conducted in Information Retrieval and how studying emotion within experimentation can lead to improved experimental design.