When interacting with information retrieval (IR) systems, users, affected by confirmation biases, tend to select search results that confirm their existing beliefs on socially significant contentious issues. To understand the judgments and attitude changes of users searching online, our study examined how cognitively biased users interact with algorithmically biased search engine result pages (SERPs). We designed three-query search sessions on debated topics under various bias conditions. We recruited 1,321 crowdsourcing participants and explored their attitude changes, search interactions, and the effects of confirmation bias. Three key findings emerged: 1) most attitude changes occur in the initial query of a search session; 2) confirmation bias and result presentation on SERPs affect search behaviors in the current query and perceived familiarity with clicked results in subsequent queries. The bias position also affect attitude changes of users with lower perceived openness to conflicting opinions; 3) Interactions in the first query and and dwell time throughout the session are associated with users' attitude changes in different forms. Our study goes beyond traditional simulation-based evaluation settings and simulated rational users, sheds light on the mixed effects of human biases and algorithmic biases in controversial information retrieval tasks, and can inform the design of bias-aware user models, human-centered bias mitigation techniques, and socially responsible intelligent IR systems.

中文翻译：

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在有争议主题的全会话搜索中，认知偏见的用户与算法偏见的结果进行交互

当与信息检索（IR）系统交互时，受确认偏差影响的用户倾向于选择能够证实他们对具有社会意义的有争议问题的现有信念的搜索结果。为了了解在线搜索用户的判断和态度变化，我们的研究考察了有认知偏见的用户如何与有算法偏见的搜索引擎结果页面（SERP）进行交互。我们针对各种偏见条件下的辩论主题设计了三查询搜索会话。我们招募了 1,321 名众包参与者，并探讨了他们的态度变化、搜索互动以及确认偏差的影响。出现了三个关键发现：1）大多数态度变化发生在搜索会话的初始查询中； 2) SERP 上的确认偏差和结果呈现会影响当前查询中的搜索行为以及后续查询中对点击结果的感知熟悉度。偏见立场也会影响对冲突意见持较低开放态度的用户的态度变化； 3）首次查询中的交互以及整个会话中的停留时间与用户不同形式的态度变化相关联。我们的研究超越了传统的基于模拟的评估设置和模拟理性用户，揭示了有争议的信息检索任务中人类偏见和算法偏见的混合影响，并且可以为偏见感知用户模型的设计、以人为中心的偏见缓解提供信息技术和对社会负责的智能红外系统。