Feeling angry: the effects of vaccine misinformation and refutational messages on negative emotions and vaccination attitude

Featherstone, Jieyu Ding; Zhang, Jingwen

doi:10.1080/10810730.2020.1838671

Cited by 82 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…This finding is in line with a previous study on Twitter data of HPV vaccine conversations, which identified anger from many individual tweets commenting on HPV vaccines ( 39 ). Such anger emotion in user comments could further negatively impact the pro-vaccination attitudes of the people ( 16 ). This suggests that communication efforts to reduce HPV vaccine hesitancy are needed to strategically address angry reactions of the people.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, developing more tailored messaging is also important for high-coverage counties because it allows for addressing specific concerns that are brought up as new issues and misinformation are spread. Because emotions are higher among those who exhibit concerns with vaccines, messages can be constructed by leveraging fact-checking labels ( 49 ), refutational arguments ( 16 ), and narratives that address emotions ( 50 ), which have proved to be effective in reducing misinformation impacts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are extant efforts in vaccine promotions through social media by public health groups and institutions, and research evidence has documented the effectiveness of using social media-based interventions for increasing vaccine knowledge and acceptance ( 14 , 15 ). While, on the contrary, exposure to anti-vaccine information, including misinformation, has been shown to negatively influence vaccination attitudes, and decisions ( 16 , 17 ). Social media has facilitated the spread of misinformation, and several studies have documented the prevalence of anti-vaccine sentiments ( 18 , 19 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Understanding Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Promotions and Hesitancy in Northern California Through Examining Public Facebook Pages and Groups

Zhang

Xue

Calabrese

et al. 2021

Front. Digit. Health

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Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage among adolescents is lower in rural regions and remains under the 80% coverage goal by Healthy People 2030. Through both sentiment analysis and topic modeling, this research examines how local health agencies and groups in nine Northern California counties promote HPV vaccines through Facebook and how target populations react to promotion posts in comments that elucidate their sentiments and hesitancy toward HPV vaccination. In January 2021, we identified 2,105 public Facebook pages and 1,065 groups related to health within the counties and collected a total of 212 posts and 505 comments related to the HPV vaccine. The posts were published between 2010 and 2021, with the majority (83%) published after 2017. There were large variations of Facebook activities across counties. We categorized four counties with HPV vaccination initiation rates below 40% as low-coverage counties and five counties with rates above 40% as high-coverage counties. In general, low-coverage counties had fewer Facebook activities in comparison to high coverage. Results showed that, on average, comments about the HPV vaccine exhibited more positive emotion, more negative emotion, and more anger than the posts. Overall, thematic topics that emerged from posts centered around awareness and screening of HPV and cervical cancer, STI testing services, information sources, and calls to action for health services. However, comment topics did not correspond to posts and were mostly related to vaccine hesitancy, discussing vaccine risks, safety concerns, and distrust in vaccine science, citing misinformation. When comparing high- versus low-coverage counties, posts expressed similar sentiments; however, comments within high-coverage counties expressed more anger than in low-coverage counties. Comments from both high- and low-coverage counties expressed concerns with vaccine safety, risks, and injury. It is important to note that commenters exchanged information sources and tried to address misinformation themselves. Our results suggest that the promotion of HPV vaccines from public Facebook pages and groups is limited in frequency and content diversity. This illustrates problems with generalized social media vaccination promotion without community tailoring and addressing specific hesitancy concerns. Public health agencies should listen to the thoughts of targeted audiences reflected through comments and design relevant messages to address these concerns for HPV vaccination promotion.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Understanding Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Promotions and Hesitancy in Northern California Through Examining Public Facebook Pages and Groups

Zhang

Xue

Calabrese

et al. 2021

Front. Digit. Health

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Inoculation through education and the utilization of messages that counteract the forces that compromise planetary health (and underlie Anthropocene Syndrome) are now a subject of intense scrutiny; this includes employing specific language/narrative that foils otherwise persuasive content proffered by the marketers of unhealthy commercial products [148,149], diminishes the propaganda that otherwise obfuscates the social determinants of health and suggests the NCD "pandemic" is solely a matter of personal responsibility [150], countering misinformation related to climate change [151] and antivaccine attitudes [152]. In addition to refining messages that resonate, the approaches of inoculation often present individuals with a weak example of misinformation along with a refutation (raising and refuting of counterarguments known as refutational preemption [153]); this, according to the "inoculation theory" built upon the analogy of exposure to weakened pathogens in biological vaccination [154][155][156], prepares individuals for subsequent exposures to more potent misinformation.…”

Section: Box 2 Awe Wonder and Great Mysteries In Planetary Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Healing Anthropocene Syndrome: Planetary Health Requires Remediation of the Toxic Post-Truth Environment

Logan¹,

Berman

et al. 2021

Challenges

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The term “Anthropocene Syndrome” describes the wicked interrelated challenges of our time. These include, but are not limited to, unacceptable poverty (of both income and opportunity), grotesque biodiversity losses, climate change, environmental degradation, resource depletion, the global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), health inequalities, social injustices, the spread of ultra-processed foods, consumerism and incivility in tandem with a diminished emphasis on the greater potential of humankind, efforts toward unity, or the value of fulfilment and flourishing of all humankind. Planetary health is a concept that recognizes the interdependent vitality of all natural and anthropogenic ecosystems—social, political and otherwise; it blurs the artificial lines between health at scales of person, place and planet. Promoting planetary health requires addressing the underlying pathology of “Anthropocene Syndrome” and the deeper value systems and power dynamics that promote its various signs and symptoms. Here, we focus on misinformation as a toxin that maintains the syndromic status quo—rapid dissemination of falsehoods and dark conspiracies on social media, fake news, alternative facts and medical misinformation described by the World Health Organization as an “infodemic”. In the context of planetary health, we explore the historical antecedents of this “infodemic” and underscore an urgent need to remediate the misinformation mess. It is our contention that education (especially in early life) emphasizing mindfulness and understanding of the mechanisms by which propaganda is spread (and unhealthy products are marketed) is essential. We expand the discourse on positive social contagion and argue that empowerment through education can help lead to an information transformation with the aim of flourishing along every link in the person, place and planet continuum.

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“…Given those features, various internet platforms serve as fertile grounds for examining the public’s perceptions of health issues or events [ 16 ]. This holds true for the vaccine issue because vaccines and vaccination are buzz topics on the internet and are encompassed by provaccine and antivaccine discourses [ 17 , 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Expression Differences Between Professionals and Laypeople Toward the COVID-19 Vaccine: Text Mining Approach

Luo¹,

Ji²,

Tang³

et al. 2021

J Med Internet Res

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Background COVID-19 is still rampant all over the world. Until now, the COVID-19 vaccine is the most promising measure to subdue contagion and achieve herd immunity. However, public vaccination intention is suboptimal. A clear division lies between medical professionals and laypeople. While most professionals eagerly promote the vaccination campaign, some laypeople exude suspicion, hesitancy, and even opposition toward COVID-19 vaccines. Objective This study aims to employ a text mining approach to examine expression differences and thematic disparities between the professionals and laypeople within the COVID-19 vaccine context. Methods We collected 3196 answers under 65 filtered questions concerning the COVID-19 vaccine from the China-based question and answer forum Zhihu. The questions were classified into 5 categories depending on their contents and description: adverse reactions, vaccination, vaccine effectiveness, social implications of vaccine, and vaccine development. Respondents were also manually coded into two groups: professional and laypeople. Automated text analysis was performed to calculate fundamental expression characteristics of the 2 groups, including answer length, attitude distribution, and high-frequency words. Furthermore, structural topic modeling (STM), as a cutting-edge branch in the topic modeling family, was used to extract topics under each question category, and thematic disparities were evaluated between the 2 groups. Results Laypeople are more prevailing in the COVID-19 vaccine–related discussion. Regarding differences in expression characteristics, the professionals posted longer answers and showed a conservative stance toward vaccine effectiveness than did laypeople. Laypeople mentioned countries more frequently, while professionals were inclined to raise medical jargon. STM discloses prominent topics under each question category. Statistical analysis revealed that laypeople preferred the “safety of Chinese-made vaccine” topic and other vaccine-related issues in other countries. However, the professionals paid more attention to medical principles and professional standards underlying the COVID-19 vaccine. With respect to topics associated with the social implications of vaccines, the 2 groups showed no significant difference. Conclusions Our findings indicate that laypeople and professionals share some common grounds but also hold divergent focuses toward the COVID-19 vaccine issue. These incongruities can be summarized as “qualitatively different” in perspective rather than “quantitatively different” in scientific knowledge. Among those questions closely associated with medical expertise, the “qualitatively different” characteristic is quite conspicuous. This study boosts the current understanding of how the public perceives the COVID-19 vaccine, in a more nuanced way. Web-based question and answer forums are a bonanza for examining perception discrepancies among various identities. STM further exhibits unique strengths over the traditional topic modeling method in statistically testing the topic preference of diverse groups. Public health practitioners should be keenly aware of the cognitive differences between professionals and laypeople, and pay special attention to the topics with significant inconsistency across groups to build consensus and promote vaccination effectively.

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Feeling angry: the effects of vaccine misinformation and refutational messages on negative emotions and vaccination attitude

Cited by 82 publications

References 52 publications

Understanding Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Promotions and Hesitancy in Northern California Through Examining Public Facebook Pages and Groups

Understanding Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Promotions and Hesitancy in Northern California Through Examining Public Facebook Pages and Groups

Healing Anthropocene Syndrome: Planetary Health Requires Remediation of the Toxic Post-Truth Environment

Exploring the Expression Differences Between Professionals and Laypeople Toward the COVID-19 Vaccine: Text Mining Approach

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