Googling as avoidance: anxiety responses to online health information about long COVID

<b>Background and Objectives:</b>People search the internet for health information, although this increases anxiety and worry, particularly in the health-anxious. Applying the avoidance theory of worrying, we tested whether online health research serves to emotionally distance oneself from illness.<b>Design and Method:</b> Googling long COVID was compared to imagery of suffering from the disease in 60 participants. We assumed that anxiety responses to googling would be lower than during imagery, but higher than during baseline. Self-report, skin conductance (SCL), heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and respiration rate (RR) indicated anxiety.<b>Results:</b> SCL was higher during imagery than googling. However, HR, high frequency HRV and RR signaled stronger activation by googling than imagery. Physiological measures demonstrated a stronger anxiety response to googling compared to baseline. Regarding self-report, an interaction effect of sequence and condition emerged. Those who started with googling reported higher levels of anxiety during imagery. Among participants who began with imagery, anxiety was elevated during googling compared to baseline, but there were no significant differences when compared to anxiety during imagery.<b>Conclusions:</b> Results at least partially support the notion that health-related internet research may serve to avoid the physical and self-reported anxiety responses.