Appetitive information seeking behaviour reveals robust daily rhythmicity for Internet-based food-related keyword searches.

ABSTRACT: There has been an exponential growth of information seeking behaviour (ISB) via Internet-based programs over the past decade. The availability of software that record ISB temporal patterns has provided a valuable opportunity to examine biological rhythms in human behaviour. Internet search repositories, such as Google Trends, permit the analyses of large datasets that can be used to track ISB on a domestic and international scale. We examined daily and seasonal Google Trends search patterns for keywords related to food intake, using the most relevant search terms for the USA, UK, Canada, India and Australia. Daily and seasonal ISB rhythmicity were analysed using CircWave v. 1.4. Daily ISB data revealed a robust and significant sine waveform for general terms (e.g. 'pizza delivery') and cou

SUBMITTER: Scrutton Alvarado N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6083665 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature