Google search predictions increase fear and anxiety among Spanish speakers

Searching for information related to diseases through Google may not be such a good idea, since a study found that the predictions launched by the search engine in Spanish can cause fear and anxiety.

Research by Rutgers public health and data science experts found that during the height of the COVID-19 virus pandemic, Google search autocompletes - what the tech company calls “predictions ” - yielded different results in Spanish than in English. In many cases, the suggested search terms in Spanish were more fear and stress-inducing than their English equivalents.

For example, the researchers found that typing “coronavirus is” into Google returned search predictions such as “it contagious”, “man made” and “airborne” , while in Spanish, “coronavirus es” returned “deadly”, “false” and dangerous.

“The health implications of this data are profound,” says Pamela Valera, an associate professor in the Department of Urban and Global Public Health at the Rutgers School of Public Health and lead author of the study published in the Journal of Community Psychology.

Every day, billions of Internet searches are performed through Google, and autocomplete predictions help you get results faster by suggesting queries. Depending on the company, language, location, interest trends, and past searches influence what is displayed.

However, according to the researchers, predictive algorithms carry an inherent bias that can impact public health outcomes and behaviors. An example from the study: The researchers found that automated searches for the term “hand sanitizer” in English returned mostly positive predictions, but in Spanish the predictions were negative, which could influence sanitizer use among Spanish-speakers.

The study

To explore linguistic differences in Google search autocompletes during the first wave of the pandemic, Valera, Singh, and their colleagues conducted three focus groups with 29 participants.

The first meeting was in English with non-Spanish speakers; the second, only with Spanish speakers; and the third, with bilingual and bicultural participants. The virtual meetings lasted between 90 and 120 minutes.

Various topics emerged from the conversations. First, autocompletes evoked fear and stress among Spanish-speakers, as well as skepticism and hesitancy toward autocomplete searches themselves, Valera said.

The researchers also found that autocompletes encourage pre-selection in searches, which can lead people towards biased information. Finally, the study revealed that the number of auto-completed COVID-19 related terms in English far exceeded the number of terms in Spanish, in some cases by a ratio of three to one.