Virtual lab coats: The effects of verified source information on social media post credibility.

Social media platform's lack of control over its content made way to the fundamental problem of misinformation. As users struggle with determining the truth, social media platforms should strive to empower users to make more accurate credibility judgements. A good starting point is a more accurate perception of the credibility of the message's source. Two pre-registered online experiments (N = 525;N = 590) were conducted to investigate how verified source information affects perceptions of Tweets (study 1) and generic social media posts (study 2). In both studies, participants reviewed posts by an unknown author and rated source and message credibility, as well as likelihood of sharing. Posts varied by the information provided about the account holder: (1) none, (2) the popular method of verified source identity, or (3) verified credential of the account holder (e.g., employer, role), a novel approach. The credential was either relevant to the content of the post or not. Study 1 presented the credential as a badge, whereas study 2 included the credential as both a badge and a signature. During an initial intuitive response, the effects of these cues were generally unpredictable. Yet, after explanation how to interpret the different source cues, two prevalent reasoning errors surfaced. First, participants conflated source authenticity and message credibility. Second, messages from sources with a verified credential were perceived as more credible, regardless of whether this credential was context relevant (i.e., virtual lab coat effect). These reasoning errors are particularly concerning in the context of misinformation. In sum, credential verification as tested in this paper seems ineffective in empowering users to make more accurate credibility judgements. Yet, future research could investigate alternative implementations of this promising technology.

Testing a first online intervention to reduce conformity to cyber aggression in messaging apps.

Early adolescents frequently use mobile messaging apps to communicate with peers. The popularity of such messaging apps has a critical drawback because it increases conformity to cyber aggression. Cyber aggression includes aggressive peer behaviors such as nasty comments, nonconsensual image sharing, and social exclusion, to which adolescents subsequently conform. Recent empirical research points to peer group norms and reduced accountability as two essential determinants of conformity to cyber aggression. Therefore, the current study aimed to counteract these two determinants in a 2 (peer group norms counteracted: yes, no) x 2 (reduced accountability counteracted: yes, no) design. We created four intervention conditions that addressed adolescents' deficits in information, motivation, and behavioral skills. Depending on the condition (peer group norms, reduced accountability, combination, or control), we first informed participants about the influence of the relevant determinant (e.g., peer group norms). Subsequently, participants performed a self-persuasion task and formulated implementation-intentions to increase their motivation and behavioral skills not to conform to cyber aggression. Effectiveness was tested with a messaging app paradigm and self-report among a sample of 377 adolescents (Mage = 12.99, SDage = 0.84; 53.6% boys). Factorial ANCOVAs revealed that none of the intervention conditions reduced conformity to cyber aggression. Moreover, individual differences in susceptibility to peer pressure or inhibitory control among adolescents did not moderate the expected relations. Therefore, there is no evidence that our intervention effectively reduces conformity to cyber aggression. The findings from this first intervention effort point to the complex relationship between theory and practice. Our findings warrant future research to develop potential intervention tools that could effectively reduce conformity to cyber aggression.

A psychometric evaluation of the Dutch Short Health Anxiety Inventory in the general population.

Distress or anxiety about health is known as health anxiety. One of the most widely used scales to measure health anxiety is the Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI; Salkovskis, Rimes, Warwick, & Clark, 2002). The current study contributes to both the applicability and understanding of the SHAI by making 5 interrelated methodological contributions: (a) developing a Dutch translation of the SHAI, (b) validating this translation in the Dutch general population, (c) comprehensively examining its factor structure, (d) examining predictive validity and test-retest reliability of test scores, and (e) testing measurement invariance across subsamples and over time and comparing SHAI scores in subsamples of healthy and ill individuals and males and females. Data were collected from 5,310 respondents in 2 consecutive waves with a 2-month time gap. The results revealed that the SHAI comprises 2 factors: Illness Likelihood (14 Items) and Negative Consequences of Illness (4 Items). Further empirical evidence for the measurement invariance of this factor structure across subsamples and over time was revealed, as well as predictive validity, internal consistency and test-retest reliability of test scores, thereby proving that it is a useful tool for measuring health anxiety in the general Dutch population. On the basis of our results, we recommend that the 14-item SHAI, that is, the Illness Likelihood subscale, be adopted to measure health anxiety in future studies. We suggest slight adaptations to some answer options and argue that the benefit of adding the Negative Consequences of Illness subscale is debatable. (PsycINFO Database Record

The curious case of cyberchondria: A longitudinal study on the reciprocal relationship between health anxiety and online health information seeking.

The current study is the first to longitudinally investigate the reciprocal relationship between online health information seeking and health anxiety, i.e., cyberchondria. Expectations were that health anxious individuals who go online to find health information, experience an increase in health anxiety, which in turn will reinforce online seeking. A 4-wave longitudinal survey study among 5322 respondents aged 16-93 was conducted. Our results showed that individuals who are more health anxious than others, search online for health information more. Moreover, the results provided initial evidence for the expected reciprocal relationship between health anxiety and online health information seeking in respondents with non-clinical levels of health anxiety at the start of the study. However, this reciprocal relationship could not be found in a subsample of clinically health anxious individuals. Although for these individuals online health information seeking did not seem to exacerbate health anxiety levels, it might still serve as a maintaining factor of clinical health anxiety.

Online health anxiety and consultation satisfaction: A quantitative exploratory study on their relations.

OBJECTIVE: The present study explores how seeking online information may affect satisfaction with the doctor consultation and what role health anxiety plays in this context. METHODS: A survey was conducted asking patients in doctors' offices about their online seeking for health information and measuring health anxiety prior to the consultation, and their satisfaction with the consultation afterwards (N= 239). RESULTS: Results showed that health anxiety is positively related to seeking online health information and that health anxious people are less satisfied with the doctor consultation. Furthermore, people searching more extensively appreciated the duration of their physician's consultation less, but only if they were relatively health anxious. CONCLUSIONS: The internet has significantly changed how patients can prepare themselves prior to the doctor consultation. This may have a negative effect on the satisfaction with the consultation, especially for people that are health anxious. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Doctors should be aware that online health information seeking affects the satisfaction with the consultation, especially for health anxious individuals.

It is all about being popular: the effects of need for popularity on social network site use.

Prior research on predictors of social network site (SNS) use has mainly focused on the Big Five, narcissism, and self-esteem. Results have been inconsistent, and variance explained was rather low. Need for popularity (NfP) might be a better predictor of SNS use, because SNSs are ideal venues for people with a high NfP. Study 1 tested NfP, self-esteem, need to belong, entitlement, and vanity as predictors for a range of SNS behaviors; Study 2 replaced entitlement and vanity with narcissism and added the Big Five as predictors. SNS behaviors assessed were grooming, strategic self-presentation, profile enhancement, disclosure of feelings, routine use of SNS, and number of friends. Results showed that NfP was the strongest and most consistent predictor of SNS behaviors. This pattern indicates that NfP plays an important role in SNSs.

Organizational identification and the communication of identity: effects of message characteristics on cognitive and affective identification.

This paper reports an experimental study (N= 321) that tests how the cognitive and affective component of organizational identification (OI) can be affected by peripheral characteristics of organizational communication. Results show that adding cues in emails that signal organizational identity, such as the company logo, font, and colour of text, positively affect the cognitive component of OI, but not the affective component. In contrast, a personal focus in the message had a positive effect on the affective, but not on the cognitive component of OI. This study supports the idea that OI is a multi-faceted construct comprising a cognitive and affective component, and that these different components can be affected by different characteristics of organizational email messages.

Health-related on-line forums: what's the big attraction?

This study investigates what motivates people to make use of health-related online forums, and how people feel that using these forums helps them in coping with their situation. Results are based on an online questionnaire (N = 189) among users of a variety of health forums. Findings show an overall positive effect of using forums on the degree to which people are better able to cope with the situation they are facing, both socially and with their condition. This especially holds for people who find forums a convenient tool for inclusion or gathering information. A negative effect on coping, however, is found for people who primarily use forums for discussion. The study also shows that features that often are mentioned in literature on computer-mediated communication (i.e., the anonymity it affords, its text-based character, and the possibility it offers for network expansion) are recognized but appreciated differently by users. Users who feel stigmatized especially appreciate the anonymity of online forums, while people who are restricted in their mobility appreciate the possibilities for network expansion.

Appeal of playing online First Person Shooter Games.

First Person Shooter Games (FPSG) such as Counter Strike are often the subject of public concern. Surprisingly, there is no published research available about playing these games. We conducted an exploratory Internet survey (n 5 751) in order to gather information about who the players of online first person shooters are, and why they spend time on playing this particular kind of video game. The results of our survey on the one hand confirmed the stereotype of the gamer as it is often presented in popular media: the players of online FPS were indeed almost exclusively young men (mean age about 18 years) who spend a lot of their leisure time on gaming (about 2.6 h per day). We also found that the most committed gamers, that is, the ones who were members of a (semi)professional clan, scored highest on motives with respect to competition, and challenge in comparison with members of amateur clans and online gamers who had not joined a clan. On the other hand, our results cast doubt on the accuracy of the stereotype. This study showed clearly that online FPSG are not played in isolation. More than 80% of our respondents were member of a clan. Also, the regression analysis showed that the social interaction motive was the strongest predictor of the time actually spend on gaming.