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How does anonymous online peer communication affect prevention behavior? Evidence from a laboratory experiment.

ABSTRACT: While the importance of social networks for health behaviors is well-recognized, relatively little is known regarding the accuracy of anonymous online communication and its impact on health behavior. In 2012, we conducted a laboratory experiment in Boston, Massachusetts with 679 individuals to understand how anonymous online communication affects individual prevention decisions. Participants had to opt for or against investing in prevention over three sessions, each consisting of 15 experimental rounds. In the third session only, participants could share their experiences with a group of 1-3 other anonymous participants after each round. Groups exchanged an average of 16 messages over the 15 rounds of the third session. 70% of messages contained information about the subject's prevention decision and the resulting health outcome. Participants were more likely to communicate when they prevented than when they did not, with prevention failures resulting in the highest probability of sending a message. Nonetheless, receiving an additional message reporting prevention increased the odds a subject would prevent by 32 percent. We find that participants tend to adopt the prevention behavior reported by others, with less weight given to the reported outcomes of prevention, suggesting that social networks may influence behaviors through more than just information provision.

SUBMITTER: Saran I

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6248974 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Online communities provide an environment in which people with similar health concerns can interact and access content that can support the self-management of long-term conditions (LTCs). Recently, the importance of online social networks as sources of health information and social support has been brought into focus with the emergence and widespread societal impacts of COVID-19. Although online communities exist for older adults, little is known about the specific health and self-care topics that older people discuss in such environments and how these relate to users' support needs and outcomes. A better understanding of users' needs and peer-to-peer communication in these communities is necessary to inform the design of information and communication technology (ICT) interventions that are relevant to older people and their peer supporters. OBJECTIVE:This study aims to use a two-phase, web-based ethnographic (netnography) and co-design approach to explore specific health care and self-care topics that older adults discuss in a UK-based online community and how peer supporters respond to these queries with informational and/or social support and engage with stakeholders to define the needs and requirements for new ICT-based interventions capable of reducing social isolation and facilitating LTC self-management support. METHODS:The first phase of the research will involve a qualitative netnographic analysis of posts in discussion forums in a publicly accessible online community. The second phase will involve co-design workshops with health care consumers (ie, older adults and carers) and service providers to determine the needs and requirements for new ICT-based interventions and digital innovations. Constructivist grounded theory will be used in the first phase; in the second phase, the co-design workshops will be audiorecorded and analyzed thematically. RESULTS:This research project is in progress. Permission was obtained from the website administrator to use materials from the social media forum; data collection for the first phase began in April 2020. The second phase of the study is expected to begin in late 2020. This study is due to be completed by the end of 2021. CONCLUSIONS:This study is the first, to the best of our knowledge, to combine qualitative netnography with an iterative co-design framework to specify the needs and requirements for new ICT-based interventions. The findings from this study will inform the next phase of the multiphase knowledge translation project and will provide insights into the potential of online peer health communities to reduce social isolation and facilitate chronic illness self-management support and self-care. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID):PRR1-10.2196/19834.

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How does anonymous online peer communication affect prevention behavior? Evidence from a laboratory experiment.

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