Norm Perceptions about Rumor Sharing on Genetically Modified Foods: The Interaction between Facebook Likes and a Refuting Comment.

This study investigated how normative information on Facebook (i.e., the number of Likes on a Facebook post and a refuting comment) influences one's intention to share a rumor post regarding genetically modified foods. The results of an online experiment with 630 Facebook users showed that a high number of Likes increased the intention to share the post through perceived descriptive and injunctive norms of sharing behavior. The number of Likes on the post and a refuting comment interacted to influence perceived injunctive norms about rumor sharing. A comment stating that the post is a rumor increased injunctive norm perceptions about rumor sharing when the number of Likes on the post is low.

Mechanics of Rumor Mills and Epistemic Motivational Processes of Food-related Rumor Spread: Interplay between Attitude and Issue Motivation.

This study tested the manner in which attitude toward an object of rumor affects people's epistemic motivation to solve a problem and to share a rumor, specifically on social media, using two rumors regarding food safety issues including McDonald's and genetically modified food. An online survey administered to 184 undergraduate students who use Twitter showed that negative attitudes increased the likelihood of rumor sharing, mediated by issue-related epistemic motivation. However, positive attitudes showed no effects on issue-related motivation and the likelihood of rumor sharing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

When Do People Verify and Share Health Rumors on Social Media? The Effects of Message Importance, Health Anxiety, and Health Literacy.

This study explores the roles of perceived message importance, health anxiety, and health literacy in the relationship between message factors (message label and message valence) and behavioral intentions for rumor verification and sharing. 660 Twitter users responded to unverified information regarding the influenza vaccine. A 3 (label: none vs. news vs. rumor) × 2 (valence: positive vs. negative) online semi-experiment, with a survey to measure health anxiety and health literacy, showed the following results: First, perceived message importance mediated the relationship between message factors and behavioral intentions: only in the condition of the negative message, participants considered a news-labeled message more important than a rumor-labeled or a no-label message. Perceived message importance was associated with intentions to verify and share the message. Second, health anxiety interacted with perceived message importance only when predicting an intention to share the message. Last, healthy literacy interacted with perceived message importance when predicting intentions to both verify and share the message. The results will provide implications for health communication research and practices, especially on managing and controlling rumor dissemination on social media.

Roles of guilt and culture in normative influence: testing moderated mediation in the anti-secondhand smoking context.

This study simultaneously explored direct, indirect, and joint effects of types of norm messages, guilt, and culture on smokers' behavioral intentions in the anti-secondhand smoking context. An online study among 310 smoking students in an individualistic (United States) and a collectivistic (Korea) country indicated that (1) norm messages had no conditional indirect effects on behavioral intention, (2) guilt arousal had a strong and direct impact on behavioral intention, and (3) guilt arousal and its impact on behavioral intention were stronger among Korean smokers than among US smokers.

In vitro evaluation of the antitumor activity of axitinib in canine mammary gland tumor cell lines.

BACKGROUND: Axitinib, a potent and selective inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor (VEGFR) tyrosine kinase 1,2 and 3, is used in chemotherapy because it inhibits tumor angiogenesis by blocking the VEGF/VEGFR pathway. In veterinary medicine, attempts have been made to apply tyrosine kinase inhibitors with anti-angiogenic effects to tumor patients, but there are no studies on axitinib in canine mammary gland tumors (MGTs). OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to confirm the antitumor activity of axitinib in canine mammary gland cell lines. METHODS: We treated canine MGT cell lines (CIPp and CIPm) with axitinib and conducted CCK, wound healing, apoptosis, and cell cycle assays. Additionally, we evaluated the expression levels of angiogenesis-associated factors, including VEGFs, PDGF-A, FGF-2, and TGF-ß1, using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Furthermore, we collected canine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), activated them with concanavalin A (ConA) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and then treated them with axitinib to investigate changes in viability. RESULTS: When axitinib was administered to CIPp and CIPm, cell viability significantly decreased at 24, 48, and 72 h (p < 0.001), and migration was markedly reduced (6 h, p < 0.05; 12 h, p < 0.005). The apoptosis rate significantly increased (p < 0.01), and the G2/M phase ratio showed a significant increase (p < 0.001). Additionally, there was no significant change in the viability of canine PBMCs treated with LPS and ConA. CONCLUSION: In this study, we confirmed the antitumor activity of axitinib against canine MGT cell lines. Accordingly, we suggest that axitinib can be applied as a new treatment for patients with canine MGTs.

The Role of Social Media Content on Solitary Drinking Among Korean Adults.

This study aims to provide explanations for how exposure to social media content on solitary drinking influences the frequency and quantity of solitary drinking, and posting about solitary drinking on social networking sites (SNS). An online survey was conducted with 506 Korean adults who had consumed alcohol at least once while alone in the previous year. The study showed the following results: First, exposure to social media content related to solitary drinking was positively associated with both descriptive norms and negative alcohol expectancies, both of which increased solitary drinking and posting on SNS. Second, although social media content influenced injunctive norm perceptions, injunctive norms did not influence solitary drinking or posting on SNS. Findings suggest that correcting descriptive norms on solitary drinking may be an appropriate intervention for solitary alcohol users in Korea.

Normative Mechanism of Rumor Dissemination on Twitter.

This study aims to understand the impact of descriptive social norms on message believability and transmission and its underlying mechanism on Twitter. Using two types of information (i.e., news and rumor) presented as a tweet message, the influence of the number of retweets as a normative cue was tested. A result of an online experiment with 639 Twitter users suggests that regardless of the label of the information, message believability and intention to share were stronger for a tweet with a high number of retweets. The mediation test showed that the presumption that a message is believable to others mediates the relationship between a high number of retweets and message believability.