Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bali, Shreya, Arakawa, Riku, Odiase, Peace, Wu, Tongshuang, Goel, Mayank
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.16900
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866908852395442176
author Bali, Shreya
Arakawa, Riku
Odiase, Peace
Wu, Tongshuang
Goel, Mayank
author_facet Bali, Shreya
Arakawa, Riku
Odiase, Peace
Wu, Tongshuang
Goel, Mayank
contents Peer health posts surface new uncertainties, such as questions and concerns for readers. Prior work focused primarily on improving relevance and accuracy fails to address users' diverse information needs and emotions triggered. Instead, we propose directly addressing these by information augmentation. We introduce Evidotes, an information support system that augments individual posts with relevant scientific and anecdotal information retrieved using three user-selectable lenses (dive deeper, focus on positivity, and big picture). In a mixed-methods study with 17 chronic illness patients, Evidotes improved self-reported information satisfaction (3.2->4.6) and reduced self-reported emotional cost (3.4->1.9) compared to participants' baseline browsing. Moreover, by co-presenting sources, Evidotes unlocked information symbiosis: anecdotes made research accessible and contextual, while research helped filter and generalize peer stories. Our work enables an effective integration of scientific evidence and human anecdotes to help users better manage health uncertainty.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_16900
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Evidotes: Integrating Scientific Evidence and Anecdotes to Support Uncertainties Triggered by Peer Health Posts
Bali, Shreya
Arakawa, Riku
Odiase, Peace
Wu, Tongshuang
Goel, Mayank
Human-Computer Interaction
Peer health posts surface new uncertainties, such as questions and concerns for readers. Prior work focused primarily on improving relevance and accuracy fails to address users' diverse information needs and emotions triggered. Instead, we propose directly addressing these by information augmentation. We introduce Evidotes, an information support system that augments individual posts with relevant scientific and anecdotal information retrieved using three user-selectable lenses (dive deeper, focus on positivity, and big picture). In a mixed-methods study with 17 chronic illness patients, Evidotes improved self-reported information satisfaction (3.2->4.6) and reduced self-reported emotional cost (3.4->1.9) compared to participants' baseline browsing. Moreover, by co-presenting sources, Evidotes unlocked information symbiosis: anecdotes made research accessible and contextual, while research helped filter and generalize peer stories. Our work enables an effective integration of scientific evidence and human anecdotes to help users better manage health uncertainty.
title Evidotes: Integrating Scientific Evidence and Anecdotes to Support Uncertainties Triggered by Peer Health Posts
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.16900