The Internet in general, and social network sites in particular, provide great potential for communicating health issues. Different forms of online social information, such as user comments and likes, might foster the effectiveness of these communication channels. However, it is unclear whether these types of information affect people’s perceptions and judgments of health issues. Combining exemplification theory with research into online social information, we conducted a 2 × 3 × 2 experiment to address this question. We presented our participants (N = 577) with a discussion of influenza vaccination on mock-up of a Facebook page and varied the direct social information (user comments) and additional indirect social information (comment likes and post likes) given, to assess the impact on individuals’ perceptions of public behavior and risk, and on their personal attitudes and behavioral intentions. Our results showed that the participants relied on direct but not indirect social information when forming judgments.
When reporting scientific information, journalists often present common myths that are refuted with scientific facts. However, correcting misinformation this way is often not only ineffective but can increase the likelihood that people misremember it as true. We test this backfire effect in the context of journalistic coverage and examine how to counteract it. In a web-based experiment, we find evidence for a systematic backfire effect that occurs after a few minutes and strengthens after five days. Results show that forming judgments immediately during reception (in contrast to memory-based) can reduce backfire effects and prevent erroneous memory from affecting participants’ attitudes.
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