Abstract:
Information seeking and use are critically important for people living with HIV/AIDS and for those who care for
people with HIV/AIDS. In addition, the HIV/AIDS context is characterized by significant affective or emotional
aspects including stigma, fear, and coping. Thus, studies of information behavior in this context should be expected
to take account of emotional variables. In information behavior scholarship, emotional variables have been
marginalized in favor of a focus on cognitive aspects, although in recent years greater attention has been paid
to the affective realm. This study used quantitative content analysis to explore the degree to which information
behavior studies across a range of disciplines actually include affect or emotion in their analyses. Findings suggest
that most studies pay little or no attention to these variables, and that attention has not changed over the past 20
years. Those studies that do account for emotion, however, provide excellent examples of information behavior
research that can lead the way for future work.
