13 research outputs found
Measuring information overload and message fatigue toward COVID-19 prevention messages in USA and China
Summary
COVID-19 prevention messages are a crucial component of disease mitigation strategies and the primary driver of health decision-making during the global pandemic. However, the constant and repetitive nature of COVID-19 messaging may cause unintended consequences. Among the commonly observed phenomena are information overload and message fatigue, which might be experienced differently depending on cultural background. Using measurement invariance testing, this study compared how individuals from two countries—USA (n = 493) and China (n = 571)—experienced information overload and message fatigue toward COVID-19 prevention messages. Findings revealed that people in China showed significantly lower level of information overload and message fatigue than those in the USA. This study explores the extent of the unintended persuasive effects that people have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic in different societies, a comparison which has never been studied before, even outside of the context of COVID-19. The study also provides much-needed practical insights to develop public health initiatives that improve COVID-19 prevention communication, which can further reduce these unintended effects in both countries, and has implications for other countries as well
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35250 Real-time feedback during an interactive online skin cancer training game “Whack-a-Mole” is key to increasing confidence in performing skin self-examination at home
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Adding hope to mitigate defensive responses: the effect of guilt+hope appeals in road safety campaigns
Purpose Guilt appeals are increasingly being used in road safety campaigns, despite recent research that has raised doubts about their effectiveness and the potential for triggering defensive responses. Building on the extended parallel process model, this study aims to add to this growing body of research by evaluating whether combining a hope message with guilt appeals can solve this problem. Design/methodology/approach An online experiment with a 2 (Appeal type: Guilt vs Guilt+hope) × 2 (Language intensity: Low vs High) between-subjects design was conducted. A total of 399 participants recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk were randomized to view one of the four advertisements discouraging texting while driving (TWD). Their affective responses, perceptions about the advertisements and intentions to not TWD were measured. Findings The results showed that compared to guilt-only appeals, guilt+hope appeals directly reduced defensive responses (i.e. perceived manipulative intent and anger) across varying levels of language intensity. In addition, guilt+hope appeals mitigated the negative impacts of manipulative intent on intended emotions and intentions to not TWD. Originality/value Findings of this study mark the first to support the idea that communicating hope within guilt appeals is a promising social marketing strategy to discourage TWD
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Understanding Responses to Embarrassing Questions in Chatbot-Facilitated Medical Interview Conversations Using Deep Language Models - Chapter 2
Healthcare is one the fastest growing fields for conversational agents (CAs), also known as chatbots. Compared with traditional human-machine interfaces which focus on utilitarian features, chatbots offer unique advantage in understanding the user’s intent and acquiring critical information from the user via natural communications. More importantly, the perceived impartial and non-judgmental nature of machines may facilitate users’ honest self-disclosure when answering embarrassing or stigmatizing questions in medical interviews. To realize the potential of CAs, it is crucial to understand the content in users’ conversation such as self-disclosure of sensitive, personal information so that the agent can react appropriately by offering empathy or encouraging elaboration. In this exploratory study, we designed a web-based chatbot that automatically conducted medical interviews on colorectal health. The interview consisted of embarrassing questions about stool description, diarrhea, constipation, and anal sex behavior that participants needed to answer. Interview conversations from 552 participants above the age of 35 were recorded. The participants’ responses were then analyzed in terms of the level of detail and whether the response contained health or personal information that participants voluntarily disclosed. We tested the fine-tuned BERT model and the GPT-3 classification API to compare the capability of pre-trained deep language models for classifying medical interview conversations
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Human versus chatbot: Understanding the role of emotion in health marketing communication for vaccines
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The Effectiveness of Interactivity in Improving Mediating Variables, Behaviors and Outcomes of Web-Based Health Interventions: A Meta-Analytic Review
Despite the increasing amount of research investigating health interventions that applies to interactive computer technology, the effect sizes in Cohen's
obtained across these studies range from -0.32 to 1.74. The lack of systematic review of interactive health interventions leaves their overall effectiveness unknown. To address this, a meta-analysis of 67 studies examining the effects of web-based interactive health interventions was conducted. Results indicated that web-based interactive health interventions were effective in general, but the effects were moderated by health topic, theoretical framework, and design of treatment and control groups. The unique advantage of interactivity was small but significant when comparing to health interventions with comparable information in non-interactive version. Theoretical and practical implications of findings were discussed
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A Comparison of Metaphor Modality and Appeals in the Context of Skin Cancer Prevention
Health communication experts continually seek out effective strategies to strengthen persuasive campaigns. While there is evidence that verbal metaphors can improve persuasion, little attention has been given to the potential of visual metaphors to enhance health communication effects. To fill this gap, an experiment was conducted to test the effects of metaphor modality (visual vs. verbal) and type of fear appeal used (death-based or appearance-based) on skin protection intentions. Additionally, the moderating role of an individual characteristic (need for cognition), and the mediating role of two processing outcomes (message elaboration and perceived message effectiveness) were examined. Results indicated that there was no significant difference between the main effects of metaphor modality and type of fear appeal, but these message features interacted making the death-based fear appeal the most effective strategy. Need for cognition directly affected perceptions of effectiveness but did not affect skin protection intentions nor message elaboration. Of the two message processing outcomes examined, only perceived message effectiveness mediated the relationship between metaphor modality and skin protection intentions. Theoretical explanations and practical implications are discussed
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Viruses Going Viral: Impact of Fear-Arousing Sensationalist Social Media Messages on User Engagement
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When Feedback Leads to False Confidence: A Curious Outcome of a Game-Based Health Intervention
Whack-a-Mole is a melanoma identification training game developed at the University of Miami to evaluate the effectiveness of different identification training techniques using immediate personalized feedback. Two widely implemented training systems are used to identify malignant melanoma through a skin exam: ABCDE, a mnemonic for the five factors that increase likely diagnoses, and the ugly duckling sign (UDS). The game system randomized the training types the player received, in addition to a hybrid approach and a control condition. The game delivered standard and motivational feedback to a subset of players in each of these conditions as they identified moles. Both the standard feedback and motivational feedback led to higher perceived self-efficacy as compared to conditions with no feedback, regardless of whether or not the player was successful at identifying malignant moles
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When Feedback Leads to False Confidence: A Curious Outcome of a Game-Based Health Intervention
Whack-a-Mole is a melanoma identification training game developed at the University of Miami to evaluate the effectiveness of different identification training techniques using immediate personalized feedback. Two widely implemented training systems are used to identify malignant melanoma through a skin exam: ABCDE, a mnemonic for the five factors that increase likely diagnoses, and the ugly duckling sign (UDS). The game system randomized the training types the player received, in addition to a hybrid approach and a control condition. The game delivered standard and motivational feedback to a subset of players in each of these conditions as they identified moles. Both the standard feedback and motivational feedback led to higher perceived self-efficacy as compared to conditions with no feedback, regardless of whether or not the player was successful at identifying malignant moles