The Impact of Personality Factors and Preceding User Comments on the Processing of Research Findings on Deep Brain Stimulation: A Randomized Controlled Experiment in a Simulated Online Forum

Abstract

BackgroundLaypeople frequently discuss medical research findings on Web-based platforms, but little is known about whether they grasp the tentativeness that is inherent in these findings. Potential influential factors involved in understanding medical tentativeness have hardly been assessed to date.ObjectiveThe research presented here aimed to examine the effects of personality factors and of other users’ previous contributions in a Web-based forum on laypeople’s understanding of the tentativeness of medical research findings, using the example of research on deep brain stimulation.MethodsWe presented 70 university students with an online news article that reported findings on applying deep brain stimulation as a novel therapeutic method for depression, which participants were unfamiliar with. In a randomized controlled experiment, we manipulated the forum such that the article was either accompanied by user comments that addressed the issue of tentativeness, by comments that did not address this issue, or the article was accompanied by no comments at all. Participants were instructed to write their own individual user comments. Their scientific literacy, epistemological beliefs, and academic self-efficacy were measured. The outcomes measured were perceived tentativeness and tentativeness addressed in the participants’ own comments.ResultsMore sophisticated epistemological beliefs enhanced the perception of tentativeness (standardized β=.26, P=.034). Greater scientific literacy (stand. β=.25, P=.025) and greater academic self-efficacy (stand. β=.31, P=.007) were both predictors of a more extensive discussion of tentativeness in participants’ comments. When forum posts presented in the experiment addressed the issue of tentativeness, participants’ subsequent behavior tended to be consistent with what they had read in the forum, F 2,63=3.66; P=.049, ηp 2=.092.ConclusionsStudents’ understanding of the tentativeness of research findings on deep brain stimulation in an online forum is influenced by a number of character traits and by the previous comments that were contributed to the forum by other users. There is potential for targeted modification of traits such as scientific literacy, epistemological beliefs, and academic self-efficacy to foster critical thinking in laypeople who take part in online discussions of medical research findings.

Interpretation of health news items reported with or without spin: protocol for a prospective meta-analysis of 16 randomised controlled trials

“…Laypeople’s understanding of the tentativeness of research findings was influenced by their personality factors and also by other users’ comments contributed to the forum. 15 …”

Processing the Scientific Tentativeness of Medical Research: An Experimental Study on the Effects of Research News and User Comments in Online Media

“…Then we measured the participants’ perceived tentativeness of the findings described in the article using the perceived tentativeness scale (Feinkohl et al, 2016a, 2016b; Flemming et al, 2015). This scale consisted of six statements that participants had to rate on a 7-point Likert-type scale.…”

“…The users adopted the group’s social norm represented by the written comments of other users and adjusted their immediate responses (see also Kimmerle & Cress, 2009). Feinkohl et al (2016b) found that people who read skeptical comments that mentioned the tentativeness of the medical findings addressed more aspects of tentativeness when writing their own comment than when they read comments that did not address the tentativeness issue. Taken together, these considerations led to the assumption that skeptical user comments , that is, comments that take a very doubting and critical position toward the research finding reported in the journalistic article, might have an impact on the perceived tentativeness of research findings reported in online news articles.…”

“…Previous research has shown that individuals are able to detect the tentativeness of novel medical findings to some degree (Feinkohl, Flemming, Cress, & Kimmerle, 2016a; Flemming, Feinkohl, Cress, & Kimmerle, 2015; Kimmerle, Flemming, Feinkohl, & Cress, 2015). They are also able to address some aspects of the tentativeness of research findings when they write their own user comments (Feinkohl, Flemming, Cress, & Kimmerle, 2016b). These effects were found in studies, however, where the participants in all of the experimental conditions had consistently encountered journalistic science articles that from a scientific point of view contained highly tentative medical results, such as findings gained from research with small sample sizes and without control groups.…”

Influence of Enthusiastic Language on the Credibility of Health Information and the Trustworthiness of Science Communicators: Insights From a Between-Subject Web-Based Experiment

“…Tentativeness, however, does not just infuence trustworthiness and credibility judgments. In a study by Feinkohl et al [23], participants saw an online news article about the therapeutic application of deep brain stimulation. Depending on the experimental condition, the article was accompanied by different online forum comments or no comments at all.…”