Don’t get sick from the power of suggestion
Several years ago I gave a presentation to various groups on using the Internet to obtain health-related information. One thing I warned about was falling into the trap of convincing yourself that you have a certain disease or condition because you seem to have the symptoms that you read about. Now it seems that Microsoft has been studying this phenomenon. The New York Times reports:
If that headache plaguing you this morning led you first to a Web search and then to the conclusion that you must have a brain tumor, you may instead be suffering from cyberchondria.
On Monday, Microsoft researchers published the results of a study of health-related Web searches on popular search engines as well as a survey of the company’s employees.
The study suggests that self-diagnosis by search engine frequently leads Web searchers to conclude the worst about what ails them.
The researchers said they had undertaken the study as part of an effort to add features to Microsoft’s search service that could make it more of an adviser and less of a blind information retrieval tool.
Although the term “cyberchondria” emerged in 2000 to refer to the practice of leaping to dire conclusions while researching health matters online, the Microsoft study is the first systematic look at the anxieties of people doing searches related to health care, Eric Horvitz said.
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