Online comment sections may influence readers' opinions on health issues

You are here

Holly Witteman, formerly a post doctoral fellow at CBSSM and currently an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval, and colleagues’ 2016 article “One-Sided Social Media Comments Influenced Opinions And Intentions About Home Birth: An Experimental Study” was featured on Eurekalert!  an online, global news service operated by AAAS, the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The article was published in the April edition of Health Affairs and the co-authors are Angela Fagerlin, Nicole Exe, Marie-Eve Trottier and Brian Zikmund-Fisher.

An online experiment revealed that one-sided comments after health articles could influence people’s opinion about the health topic. It raises questions about how to ensure health related comment sections remain balanced.

EurekAlert!

Research Topics: