How Do Physicians Frame Medical Information in Talks With Their Patients? An Inductive Microanalysis.

During medical consultations, physicians need to share a substantial amount of information with their patients. How this information is framed can be crucial for patient understanding and outcomes, but little is known about the details of how physicians frame information in practice. Using an inductive microanalysis approach in the study of videotaped medical interactions, we aimed to identify the information frames (i.e., higher-level ways of organizing and structuring information to reach a particular purpose) and the information-framing devices (i.e., any dialogic mechanism used to present information in a particular way that shapes how the patient might perceive and interpret it) physicians use spontaneously and intuitively while sharing information with their patients. We identified 66 different information-framing devices acting within nine information frames conveying: (1) Do we agree that we share this knowledge?, (2) I don't like where I (or where you are) am going with this, (3) This may be tricky to understand, (4) You may need to think, (5) This is important, (6) This is not important, (7) This comes from me as a doctor, (8) This comes from me as a person, and (9) This is directed to you as a unique person. The kaleidoscope of information-framing devices described in this study reveals the near impossibility for neutrality and objectivity in the information-sharing practice of medical care. It also represents an inductively derived starting point for further research into aspects of physicians' information-sharing praxis.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder on YouTube: Framing, Anchoring, and Objectification in Social Media.

This study investigated videos about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) on YouTube in terms of issues, sources, and episodic-thematic aspects. A total of 685 videos uploaded onto YouTube between 2006 and 2014 were content analyzed. Results demonstrated that the top three key issues about ADHD were symptom, child, and treatment. Doctor, patient, and supporter were the three most interviewed sources. Videos from the public sector including the government, company representative, and public organizations were relatively rare compared to other sources suggesting the potential for a greater role for the government and public sector contributions to YouTube to provide credible information relevant to public awareness, campaigns, and policy announcements. Meanwhile, many personal videos in the episodic frame advocated social solutions. This result implies that YouTube videos about health information from the private sectors have the potential to affect change at the social level.

Framing sustainable food production technologies with videos - data from an experiment with German consumers.

This pre-registered dataset was generated to investigate the effect of framing on consumer acceptance of beneficial soil-microbes in tomato production. For this purpose, an online experiment was conducted with 754 consumers in Germany in 2022. A market research agency recruited participants from their online panel, and quotas for a representative sample of the adult German consumer population were applied. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the following three experimental groups: gain-framing, loss-framing or a control group. Each group received a short video clip with information about beneficial soil-microbes, in which either gain-framing, loss-framing or no framing was applied. The following constructs were surveyed before video exposure: demographics, tomato consumption frequency, attitudes towards conventionally produced tomatoes and subjective knowledge of soil-microbes. The items and constructs collected after video exposure were: purchase intentions, explicit and implicit attitude towards tomatoes produced with beneficial soil-microbes, organic consumption behavior and an evaluation of different food production methods. A single-target category implicit-association test (ST-IAT) was used to measure the implicit attitude, and all other constructs were measured through self-reported survey items. The main concept of interest is the acceptance of beneficial soil-microbes, which can be inferred from consumers' intentions and attitudes after video exposure. The dataset can be used to analyze the effect of video-based communication on consumer acceptance. Moreover, the effect of video-based communication on other outcome variables can be analyzed, such as the evaluation of different production methods and other exploratory purposes. Further, it can be explored whether organic consumption behavior or socio-demographic statistics play a mediating role on the effect of information framing. This might be of relevance for other researchers to determine the potential of video-based communication to influence consumers' acceptance of future innovations in the food sector.

A study on the factors influencing the intention to receive booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine in China based on the information frame effect.

Introduction: In the response to and prevention and control of the Novel coronavirus pneumonia, the COVID-19 vaccine does not provide lifelong immunity, and it is therefore important to increase the rate of booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine. In the field of information health science, research has found that information frames have an impact in changing individual attitudes and health behaviors. Objective: This study focuses on the effects of different influencing factors on the public's willingness to receive the booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine under two information frameworks. Methods: An online questionnaire was conducted to explore the effects of demographic characteristics, personal awareness, social relationships, risk disclosure, perceived booster vaccination protection rate, and duration of protection under the assumption of an information framework. T test and one-way analysis were used to testing the effect of variables. Results: (1) The persuasion effect under the gain frame is higher than that under the loss frame (B = 0.863 vs. B = 0.746); (2) There was no significant difference in subjects' intention of booster vaccination in terms of gender, age, income, occupation, educational background and place of residence. Whether family members received booster vaccination was strongly correlated with their intention of vaccination under the loss framework (p = 0.017, M = 4.63, SD = 0.664). (3) The higher the understanding of COVID-19, the higher the degree of compliance with the government's COVID-19 prevention and control measures, and the higher the willingness to strengthen vaccination; (4) Risk disclosure has a significant impact on people's willingness to receive COVID-19 booster shots (M = 2.48, under the loss framework; M = 2.44, under the gain framework); (5) Vaccine protection rate and duration of protection have an impact on people's willingness to vaccinate. Increased willingness to vaccinate when the protection rate of booster vaccine approaches 90% (M = 4.76, under the loss framework; M = 4.68, under the gain framework). When the vaccine protection period is 2 years, people are more willing to receive a booster vaccine; and the willingness to receive a booster shot is stronger under the loss framework (M = 4.60, SD = 0.721, p = 0.879). Conclusion: The impact of the information framework on COVID-19 vaccination intentions is different, and the disclosure of relevant health information should focus on the impact of the information framework and content on the public's behavior toward strengthening vaccination. Therefore, in the face of public health emergencies, public health departments, healthcare institutions, and other sectors can consider adopting the Gainful Information Framework tool to disseminate health information to achieve better persuasion and promote public health behavior change enhancing public health awareness, and promoting universal vaccination.

The effects of information framing on self-protective behavior: Evidence from the COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

Objectives: The Healthy China 2030 strategy outlines the government's plans for healthcare reform, emphasizing the need for increased awareness about infectious diseases to prevent and fight future infections. Information campaigns can be used as a medium to raise awareness and encourage citizens' willingness to protect themselves against diseases, such as COVID-19. Extant studies have found that individual health behavior decision-making can be changed under different information frames. However, limited evidence is available about emerging infectious diseases. Based on the Prospect Theory and Theory of Planned Behavior, the impact of information frames on self-protective behavior-vaccination against COVID-19 is investigated in this study. Methods: A 2(gain/loss frame)*2(factual/emotional frame) intergroup experimental design was designed to explore the effects of different information frames. 228 valid participants in China were recruited and the experiment was performed online. Results: First, the gain frame was more effective in promoting public self-protection behavior than the loss frame under information frame intervention. Compared with the factual frame, the emotional frame is more effective in reducing individual risk perception. Second, perceptual behavior control has masking effects on self-protection behavior under the influence of the gain/loss frame. Third, age, subjective norms, attitudes, and the gain frame, have predictive effects on self-protection behavior. Conclusions: This study provides empirical evidence on the impact of information framing interventions on public self-protection behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic and provides important practical implications for public administrators and media practitioners.

Erratum: Designing mindfulness information for interaction in social media: The role of information framing, health risk perception and lay theories of health.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1041016.].

Effectiveness of environmental health and loss framing on household pharmaceutical take-back schemes.

Pharmaceutical pollution poses an emerging environmental and public health problem. Together with increasing medicine use and pharmaceutical manufacturing effluents, improper disposal of household pharmaceutical waste significantly adds to this issue, despite pharmaceutical take-back schemes having been established in many countries. Even where take-back schemes are available return rates remain low. Previous studies have used only survey and interview methodologies and therefore merely described the situation. This study goes further, exploring not only the effects of the availability of information on pharmaceutical take-back schemes but also the effects of the framing of information provided to individuals on their intentions and reported behaviours to collect unused and/or expired household pharmaceuticals and return them to a pharmacy. The data were collected throughout three preregistered, randomised experiments with representative samples (N = 3754). The results show that tapping into individuals' pre-existing conception of the problem and psychological biases through the delivery of environmental health, loss framing information highly increased the odds of returning household pharmaceutical waste. This result is long-lasting (Studies 2 and 3), is found in various European countries (Study 1), and remains robust in all studies. Based on the results, we suggest that, in the context of household pharmaceutical waste management, psychologically informed, proactive approaches combined with targeted local action and services can reduce the psychological and practical barriers to pro-health and pro-environmental behaviour. The findings are used to support a policy recommendation that is cost-efficient, easy to use, and effective.

Designing mindfulness information for interaction in social media: The role of information framing, health risk perception and lay theories of health.

In the post-pandemic era, our health is facing unprecedented challenges, and people are more willing to obtain health-related information or interact with each other than ever before. In this context, people's interest in mindfulness information is also growing. However, not enough attention has been paid to the relationship between mindfulness information design and information interaction. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of information design based on the gain and loss framework on people's willingness to interact with mindfulness information, and to identify the framework for achieving better results. Through two experimental studies, we find that information design based on the framework of gains and losses can produce different effects. Specifically, the findings of the first experiment (N = 282) shows the individuals are more willing to interact mindfulness information when they are exposed to gain-framed information rather than loss-framed. In the second experiment (N = 308), we find that loss framing, compared with gain framing, led to greater health risk perception, which in turn make participants more likely to interact with mindfulness information with others. Additionally, our results show that the lay theories of health plays a moderating role in the direct effect of information framework on willingness to interact with mindfulness information in social media. When individuals hold incremental lay theories, they are more willing to interact with mindfulness information under the gain-framed information condition compared with the loss-framed information condition. However, when individuals are in entity condition, there is no significant difference in the willingness to interact with mindfulness information between the gain-framed and loss-framed information. Our studies of integrating information framework into designing mindfulness information suggest a promising strategy of health information interaction in social media.

Effect of Information Framing on Wearing Masks During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Interaction With Social Norms and Information Credibility.

Objective: The main objectives of this study were to use the effect of information framing (different expressions of the same issue, e.g., positive messages and negative messages) to explore key factors that influence the attitude of and intention of the public toward wearing masks and to understand the internal and external factors of intervention on information framing perception. Methods: This study performed an online questionnaire survey to explore the influence of demographic characteristics, information framing, social norms, and information credibility on the attitude of the public toward masks and their intention to wear them. Results: (1) Information framing had a significant impact on the attitudes of people toward masks and their intention to wear them, and the persuasion effect of gain-framed messages was higher than that of loss-framed messages. (2) Gender, income, occupation, educational background, and residence have no significant difference in attitude and intention to wear masks. There was a significant correlation between age and wearing of masks (p = 0.041 < 0.05). (3) Social norms affected people's perception of information framing and their attitude toward wearing masks, but only the impact of loss-framed messages on intention was significant. (4) Information framing affected people's perception of information credibility, which had a positive impact on their intention to wear masks; however, information credibility only had a significant impact on attitude toward wearing masks under the gain-framed messages and played an intermediary role. Conclusion: The impact of information framing on the attitude of people toward masks and their intention to wear them varies. Individuals involved in the publicity of health information related to this issue should pay attention to the influence of information framing and content on the public wearing masks as a means of enhancing public health awareness.

Promoting higher social distancing and stay-at-home decisions during COVID-19: The underlying conflict between public health and the economy.

Social distancing and stay-at-home orders were implemented as a quick response to the public health crisis created by COVID-19. However, these measures led to competing concerns for public health versus the wellbeing of the economy during the pandemic. This drove polarized views and attitudes towards these measures in the US that threatened their effectiveness in controlling the spread of infections. Our study addresses this point by investigating uptake of messaging treatments that highlight the health risks of COVID-19. We also investigate how priming economic risk of COVID-19 affects responsiveness to the health information messaging. A sample of 1200 US respondents were randomly assigned to a control and four messaging treatments that included information about risks of COVID-19 on own health, public health, the economy, and combination of public health and the economy, respectively. Our results indicate a significant difference in messaging uptake based on political partisanship. Individuals identifying as Democrats increased their social distancing and stay-at-home decisions in response to all information treatments, contrary to Republicans who showed no significant change in their behavior. Using a latent class analysis model, we classify individuals into three main types (dismissive, amenable, and conscious) that differ in their perceptions of the risks associated with COVID-19. We show that only amenable individuals, who account for approximately 34% of the sample, respond significantly to the messaging treatments.

Information Framing Effect on Public's Intention to Receive the COVID-19 Vaccination in China.

The aims of the study were (1) to explore information framing effect on the public's intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccination and (2) to understand the key factors influencing the intention of COVID-19 vaccinations in China. An online questionnaire survey was conducted to explore the influence of demographic characteristics, individual awareness, social relationship, risk disclosure, perceived vaccine efficacy, and protection duration under the assumptions of information framing. The results showed that (1) the persuasion effect under loss frame was higher than that under gain frame (B = 0.616 vs. 0.552); (2) there was no significant difference between sex, age, income, occupation, educational background and residence for the participants' intention to be vaccinated; whether family members/friends were vaccinated had a strong correlation with their vaccination intention under the gain frame; (3) the higher the understanding of COVID-19 and the compliance with government COVID-19 prevention and control measures were, the higher the vaccination intention was; (4) risk disclosure had the greatest impact on people's COVID-19 vaccination intention; (5) perceived vaccine effectiveness and duration of protection had little effect on people's intention to receive vaccination. The influence of information framing on the intention of COVID-19 vaccination is different. The publicity of relevant health information should pay attention to the influence of information framing and contents on the behavior of public vaccination, so as to enhance public health awareness and promote the vaccination of the whole population.

Icing on the Cake: "Amplification Effect" of Innovative Information Form in News Reports About COVID-19.

In the information era, the instant and diversified broadcasting of the COVID-19 pandemic has played an important role in stabilizing the societal mental state and avoiding inter-group conflicts. The presentation of visual graphics was considered as an innovative information form and broadly utilized in news reports. However, its effects on the audiences' cognition and behaviors have received little empirical attention. The current study applied real-time and retrospective priming paradigms to examine the impacts of information framing (positive vs. negative) and form (plain text vs. pie chart) on individuals' risk perception (cognition), positive emotion (emotion), and willingness to help others (behavioral intention) during the outbreak and post-pandemic period in China. The results indicated the "amplification effect" of the innovative form of information in the real-time priming condition, which increased the effect of the information framing on cognition, emotion, and behavioral intention. However, in the retrospective priming condition, the amplification effect on cognition and emotion were weakened, while its effect on behavioral intention disappeared. In conclusion, the study found the "amplification effect" of innovative information forms. Further, the difference in the results in the real-time and retrospective priming paradigms suggested the constraint of the context of the "amplification effect," and indicated the possible deviation of the retrospective paradigm in studies about disaster-related news. This study provides empirical support for how subtle changes in information presentation influence public mental and behavioral responses during a pandemic and has important implications for media psychology and social governance.

Promotion or Prevention Messaging?: A Field Study on What Works When You Still Have to Work.

This article addresses the timely subject of the reactions toward a Sunday trade ban in Poland. The law introduced in March 2018 created a division among service employees: (1) those who used to work on Sundays before the law and now enjoy work-free Sundays, and (2) those who used to work and still have to work on Sundays. Although the objective circumstances did not change for this latter group, their current status quo (0) now had a new better state (+1) as a contrast reference point. Hence, this group experiences a non-gain rather than a loss. Using the framework of regulatory focus (Higgins, 1997) and regulatory fit (Higgins, 2000) theories, we predicted that the individuals in the non-gain condition would process a promotion (vs. prevention)-framed message more fluently. We also predicted that processing fluency would enhance fairness perceptions among these employees. To test these predictions, we conducted a field experiment, manipulating message framing among two groups of service employees: those who gained and those who did not gain as a result the Sunday trade ban. Analysis of variance revealed that employees in a non-gain promotion framing condition processed the message more fluently than those in a prevention framing condition. A moderated mediation analysis also showed that the processing fluency resulting from fit created higher fairness perceptions. Repercussions for communicating about organizational non-gain changes are discussed.

Information Framing Reduces Initial Negative Attitudes in Cancer Patients' Decisions About Hospice Care.

BACKGROUND: Negative attitudes toward hospice care might prevent patients with cancer from discussing and choosing hospice as they approach end of life. When making a decision, people often naturally focus on either expected benefits or the avoidance of harm. Behavioral research has demonstrated that framing information in an incongruent manner with patients' underlying motivational focus reduces their negative attitudes toward a disliked option. OBJECTIVE: Our study tests this communication technique with cancer patients, aiming to reduce negative attitudes toward a potentially beneficial but often-disliked option, that is, hospice care. METHODS: Patients (n = 42) with active cancer of different types and/or stages completed a paper survey. Participants read a vignette about a patient with advanced cancer and a limited prognosis. In the vignette, the physician's advice to enroll in a hospice program was randomized, creating a congruent message or an incongruent message with patients' underlying motivational focus (e.g., a congruent message for someone most interested in benefits focuses on the benefits of hospice, whereas an incongruent message for this patient focuses on avoiding harm). Patients' attitudes toward hospice were measured before and after receiving the physician's advice. RESULTS: Regression analyses indicated that information framing significantly influenced patients with strong initial negative attitudes. Patients were more likely to reduce intensity of their initial negative attitude about hospice when receiving an incongruent message (b = -0.23; P < 0.01) than a congruent one (b = -0.13; P = 0.08). CONCLUSION: This finding suggests a new theory-driven approach to conversations with cancer patients who may harbor negative reactions toward hospice care.