Health-related information seeking: Is it worth it?

•The idealized model suggests individuals will pursue rational search strategies.•But people engage in avoidance and denial and other more irrational strategies.•Six conditions are typed by effort and good, contingent, and bad outcomes.•A health care system dependent on proactivity is more and more problematic.•We should revisit policies and systems dominated by the idealized model.

In spite of often compelling reasons for why people should seek information, they persistently engage in lower levels of it than might be expected, at times seeking no information at all. The idealized model reflecting dogged persistence, pursuing rational search strategies, until a high-quality answer is found is often assumed in the design of information systems. However, many people confronted with health problems engage in avoidance and denial, making a health care system dependent on proactivity problematic. This essay explores six conditions, the idealized model, avoidance, bewilderment, serendipity, ignorance is bliss, and indolence, that arise from low and high effort strategies when typed by good, contingent, and bad health outcomes. Since a substantial proportion of the population does not act in accordance with our assumptions, it may be time for policy makers, system designers and researchers to revisit their approaches to facilitating health-related information seeking.