High-Level Characteristics of Web Queries Change Under Threat

To adjust to threatening environments people seek information. Here, we show that under threat (due to global or personal circumstances) the high-level features of information people seek online change in a potentially adaptive manner. Specifically, under threat people were more likely to seek information that can guide action, a shift that was detected from simple analysis of web queries. 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 relative to before (controlling for total search volume). Strikingly, the proportion of these searches predicted weekly self-reported stress of ~17K individuals (controlling for confinement). Stress was associated with such searches more than with searches for specific terms like “anxiety”. To rule out potential third factors we manipulate stress and show an increase in “How” queries in response to stressful, personal, events. The findings suggest that under threat 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. An intriguing possibility is that tracking such features could be used to monitor population stress levels.