How do Online Comments Affect Perceived Descriptive Norms of E-Cigarette Use? The Role of Quasi-Statistical Sense, Valence Perceptions, and Exposure Dosage

With whom do consumers interact?

“…As such, comments not only are a signature feature of today's news media but also carriers of social influence. The results converged with previous research, which indicates that online social cues are vehicles of social norms guiding perception and behavior (Lee and Jang, 2010;Liu and Shi, 2018;Spartz et al, 2017). Furthermore, the results revealed the crucial role of perceived similarity in explaining the direct and indirect effects of comments on risk perception.…”

“…Overall, these findings suggest that comments can be perceived as representing public opinion, which suggests powerful social influence. That is, an overall opinion emanated from comments may lead to the formation of social norm perception (Liu and Shi, 2018). When people conceive that comments represent public opinion that projects social norms related to an issue, their personal opinion and evaluations of news content may be guided by comments (Lee and Tandoc, 2017).…”

“…A total of 20 comments (9 congruent, 9 incongruent and 2 neutral) were selected from the real comments posted to the news article. Following prior research practice (Liu and Shi, 2018;Shi et al, 2014) comments were selected in the ratio of 8:1:1 for congruence and incongruence conditions. For example, in C1 and C2, the comment board displayed 8 congruent, 1 incongruent and 1 neutral comment.…”

“…This assumption may bring about enthusiasm, rather than strategies, for using online news media. While it is important that marketers find ways to leverage the advantages of online media (Lefebvre, 2007), they should caution that oppositions to social change may not only come from formal competing groups (Andreasen, 2006) but also from social cues existing in the news media environment (Duong et al, 2019;Liu and Shi, 2018). It is critical for marketers to acknowledge that, as traditional gatekeeping methods available for mass media is undermined, consumers are increasingly left with a plethora of social cues and sources to evaluate media messages.…”

Drowning Out the Message: How Online Comments on News Stories About Nike’s Ad Campaign Contributed to Polarization and Gatekeeping

“…Online comments can be persuasive because of public trust in user-generated comments, which can be seen as more credible than media reports since the comments are seen as impartial (Shoemaker et al, 2010). Liu and Shi (2018) posit that social influence is embedded in online comments, and they have a powerful impact on individuals in guiding how they evaluate news content. Their research suggests that some people’s attitudinal judgment follows the dominant voice even though those voices are often anonymous strangers.…”