The credibility of social media beauty gurus in young millennials' cosmetic product choice.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Social media influencers play a role in the beauty industry by making it more accessible and diverse, engaging in cultural acceptance and diversity, and making their lives public through social media. Known as 'beauty gurus', these influencers use their makeup skills to work with cosmetics brands, in which they earn substantial remuneration by raising brand awareness among social media audiences. While work was conducted on social media influencers, there was no clear focus on how influencers engage with young millennials regarding the choice of cosmetics products and its use. Hence, this study analysed the beauty 'gurus' credibility in influencing young female millennials' cosmetics brands of choice. A survey method was used to collect data using a judgemental sampling from young females who have subscribed and observed makeup tutorials on social media platforms, such as YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, among many others. Additionally, a total of 271 usable questionnaires were gathered and analysed using AMOS. Credibility traits, such as knowledge, attractiveness, and relatability, were the core elements of an influencer's capability to influence young millennials. Social media influencers were seen as a new and effective marketing tool in targeting a broad demographic and increasing brand awareness.
Project description:How does the credibility we attribute to media sources influence our opinions and judgments derived from news? Participants read headlines about the social behavior of depicted unfamiliar persons from websites of trusted or distrusted well-known German news media. As a consequence, persons paired with negative or positive headlines were judged more negative or positive than persons associated with neutral information independent of source credibility. Likewise, electrophysiological signatures of slow and controlled evaluative brain activity revealed a dominant influence of emotional headline contents regardless of credibility. Modulations of earlier brain responses associated with arousal and reflexive emotional processing show an effect of negative news and suggest that distrusted sources may even enhance the impact of negative headlines. These findings demonstrate that though we may have distinct perceptions about the credibility of media sources, information processing and social judgments rely on the emotional content of headlines, even when they stem from sources we distrust.
Project description:Social media influencers (SMI) are individuals with large follower engagement, who can shape the thoughts and dietary behaviours of their audience. Concerns exist surrounding the spread of dietary misinformation by SMI, which may impact negatively on public health, yet no standards currently exist to assess the credibility of their information. This study aimed to evaluate the credibility of key SMI weight management (WM) blogs (n = 9), piloting a pre-prepared credibility checklist. SMI were included if they had a blue-tick verification on ≥2 social media (SM) and an active WM blog. A sample of blog posts were systematically evaluated against thirteen credibility indicators under four themes: 'transparency', 'use of other resources', 'trustworthiness and adherence to nutritional criteria' and 'bias'. Indicators were yes/no questions to determine an overall credibility percentage for each SMI. The ten most recent meal recipes from each blog were evaluated against Public Health England's (PHE) calorie targets and the UK 'traffic light' food labelling scheme to assess nutritional quality. Percentages ranged from 23-85%, the highest gained by a Registered Nutritionist. SMI blogs may not be credible as WM resources. Given the popularity and impact of SM in the context of overweight, obesity and WM, this study may inform the methodological approach for future research.
Project description:The evolution of electronic media is a mixed blessing. Due to the easy access, low cost, and faster reach of the information, people search out and devour news from online social networks. In contrast, the increasing acceptance of social media reporting leads to the spread of fake news. This is a minacious problem that causes disputes and endangers the societal stability and harmony. Fake news spread has gained attention from researchers due to its vicious nature. proliferation of misinformation in all media, from the internet to cable news, paid advertising and local news outlets, has made it essential for people to identify the misinformation and sort through the facts. Researchers are trying to analyze the credibility of information and curtail false information on such platforms. Credibility is the believability of the piece of information at hand. Analyzing the credibility of fake news is challenging due to the intent of its creation and the polychromatic nature of the news. In this work, we propose a model for detecting fake news. Our method investigates the content of the news at the early stage i.e., when the news is published but is yet to be disseminated through social media. Our work interprets the content with automatic feature extraction and the relevance of the text pieces. In summary, we introduce stance as one of the features along with the content of the article and employ the pre-trained contextualized word embeddings BERT to obtain the state-of-art results for fake news detection. The experiment conducted on the real-world dataset indicates that our model outperforms the previous work and enables fake news detection with an accuracy of 95.32%.
Project description:An infodemic represents a concern for public health, influencing the general population's perceptions of key health issues. Misinformation is rapidly spread by social media, particularly among young generations. We used data from the WHO "Social Media and COVID-19" study, which was conducted in 24 countries worldwide on over 23,000 subjects aged 18-40 years, to explore Generation Z and Millennials' models for health-information-seeking behaviors on social media. We summarized data on the most used sources of information, content of interest, and content sharing, as well as the sentiment toward the infodemic, through descriptive statistics and Chi-square test to verify the differences between groups. Among the survey respondents, 9475 (40.3%) were from high-income countries (HIC), 8000 (34.1%) from upper-middle-income countries (UMIC), and 6007 (25.6%) from lower-middle-income countries (LMIC). Social media were the most used sources of information to retrieve news on COVID-19 disease (about 79% in HIC, 87% in UMIC, and 90% in LIC) and the COVID-19 vaccine (about 78% in HIC and about 88% in UMIC and LIC). More than a half of the young respondents declared that they pay attention to scientific contents (about 51% in HIC, 59% in UMIC, and 55% in LMIC). Finally, most young participants reported feeling overwhelmed by the infodemic. However, this sentiment did not stop them from seeking information about COVID-19. Our findings highlight the importance of shaping public health interventions and campaigns on social media platforms and leveraging scientific contents. Public health authorities should work also on strategies to improve the digital literacy of the population as a driving force to empower them and achieve better health outcomes.
Project description:BackgroundNutrition science is currently facing issues regarding the public's perception of its credibility, with social media (SM) influencers increasingly becoming a key source for nutrition-related information with high engagement rates. Source credibility and, to an extent, authenticity have been widely studied in marketing and communications but have not yet been considered in the context of nutrition or health communication. Thus, an investigation into the factors that impact perceived source and message credibility and authenticity is of interest to inform health communication on SM.ObjectiveThis study aims to explore the factors that impact message and source credibility (which includes trustworthiness and expertise) or authenticity judgments on SM platforms to better inform nutrition science SM communication best practices.MethodsA total of 6 databases across a variety of disciplines were searched in March 2019. The inclusion criteria were experimental studies, studies focusing on microblogs, studies focusing on healthy adult populations, and studies focusing on either source credibility or authenticity. Exclusion criteria were studies involving participants aged under 18 years and clinical populations, gray literature, blogs, WeChat conversations, web-based reviews, non-English papers, and studies not involving participants' perceptions.ResultsOverall, 22 eligible papers were included, giving a total of 25 research studies. Among these studies, Facebook and Twitter were the most common SM platforms investigated. The most effective communication style differed depending on the SM platform. Factors reported to impact credibility included language used online, expertise heuristics, and bandwagon heuristics. No papers were found that assessed authenticity.ConclusionsCredibility and authenticity are important concepts studied extensively in the marketing and communications disciplines; however, further research is required in a health context. Instagram is a less-researched platform in comparison with Facebook and Twitter.
Project description:BackgroundMenstrual health and hygiene (MHH) is a human rights issue; yet, it remains a challenge for many, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). MHH includes the socio-political, psychosocial, and environmental factors that impact women's menstrual experiences. High proportions of girls and women in LMICs have inadequate MHH due to limited access to menstrual knowledge, products, and stigma reinforcing harmful myths and taboos. The aim of this pilot was to inform the design of an MHH sub-study and the implementation and scale-up of an MHH intervention incorporated into a community-based cluster-randomized trial of integrated sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services for youth in Zimbabwe. The objectives were to investigate (1) uptake of a novel MHH intervention, (2) menstrual product preference, and (3) the factors that informed uptake and product choice among young women.MethodsFemale participants aged 16-24 years old attending the community-based SRH services between April and July 2019 were offered the MHH intervention, which included either a menstrual cup or reusable pads, analgesia, and MHH education. Descriptive statistics were used to quantitatively assess uptake and product choice. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with participants and the intervention team were used to investigate the factors that influenced uptake and product choice.ResultsOf the 1732 eligible participants, 1414 (81.6%) took up the MHH intervention at first visit. Uptake differed by age group with 84.6% of younger women (16-19 years old) compared to 79.0% of older women (20-24 years old) taking up the intervention. There was higher uptake of reusable pads (88.0%) than menstrual cups (12.0%). Qualitative data highlighted that internal factors, such as intervention delivery, influenced uptake. Participants noted the importance of access to free menstrual products, analgesics, and MHH education in a youth-friendly environment. External factors such as sociocultural factors informed product choice. Barriers to cup uptake included fears that the cup would compromise young women's virginity.ConclusionsPilot findings were used to improve the MHH intervention design and implementation as follows: (1) cup ambassadors to improve cup promotion, sensitization, and uptake; (2) use of smaller softer cups; and (3) education for community members including caregivers and partners.Trial registrationRegistry: Clinicaltrials.gov Registration Number: NCT03719521 Registration Date: 25 October 2018.
Project description:Recent systematic reviews identify that the factors mediating and/or moderating the relationship between social media and health outcomes are sparse. There have also been few attempts to analyse gender specific uses of social media. This paper investigated young boys health-related learning in relation to social media. Data were generated from class activities and interviews and from a large data set that included 1346 young people. The approach to the empirical data adopted was Practical Epistemology Analysis (PEA). The findings reveal two main purposes of young boys engagement with social media: (i) communicating with friends, and (ii) accessing health-related information. Irony and humour were central learning mechanisms used by young boys to participate within health-related social media, and in a way that enabled them to engage with, uphold, and handle health discourses associated with masculinity - such as being ripped - without fear of 'literal' peer ridicule and within a context of acceptable 'banter'. There was evidence that young people were critical users and generators of social media, who were clearly thinking through what they see, do, and use online. Hence, this paper provides a fresh evidence-based perspective on the potentially positive role of social media as a health-related learning resource. PEA is illustrated as a new methodological approach for investigating learning in the context of social media. The evidence generated can be used to inform future evaluations of social media use, the design of educative support for young people, and guidance and training for key stakeholders.
Project description:Using social media for health promotion is an innovative and emerging approach but remains relatively unexplored in cancer screening. Uptake of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening remains low and standard methods of reaching out are expensive with limited impact. The objective of this study is to conduct a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the effectiveness of social media messages for CRC screening on screening intention (primary outcome). The results of this trial will be of interest to Cancer Care Ontario and are likely to be taken up by other screening programs looking for innovative and novel ways to increase screening participation. The study results will be easily translatable identifying the most compelling CRC screening messages while the approach can easily be translated to other cancer disease sites with screening programs.
Project description:The dataset examines three factors (i.e. financial literacy, self-control, peer-influence) that influence investment behaviour amongst young Indonesian millennials. Using a non-probability sampling technique, a total of 265 young millennials attending Investment Gallery seminar and workshop events in Jakarta, Indonesia completed an investment behaviour survey. The reflective measurement was performed using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) to the screened data from the survey (N = 213). The measurement includes the evaluation of outer loading, internal reliability, and convergent reliability. The final equation model was evaluated and estimated using SmartPLS v.3.3.2 program. The dataset is beneficial for companies seeking for potential investors from young millennials. The dataset also provides valuable insights for the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) and universities, particularly the faculty of economy and business in preparing their students with the financial literacy and investment knowledge.
Project description:BackgroundThe use of cosmetic products in beauty salons emits numerous kinds of toxic air pollutants. The objectives of this study were to measure the concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde in 20 large beauty salons in Tehran and relate the observed concentrations to environmental and occupational characteristics of the salons.MethodsSamples were collected from inside and outside air of 20 selected salons located in different areas of the city. Several additional parameters were recorded during the sampling process including surface area, number of active employees, type of ventilation, type of ongoing treatments, temperature, humidity. Deterministic and stochastic health risk assessment of the compounds were performed.ResultsIndoor concentrations of each pollutant were significantly higher than its outdoor concentrations. Health risk assessment showed that benzene, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde represent a possible cancer risk in the beauty salons. In addition, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene had negligible non-carcinogenic risks. Ventilation with air purifier, and fan with open window were more effective than using just a fan. Concentrations of benzene and toluene were affected by the number of hair dying treatments. The concentration of xylene was affected by the number of hair styling. The concentration of formaldehyde was affected by the number of hair styling and number of nail treatments.ConclusionWith improved ventilation and requirements for reformulated cosmetic, concentrations of toxic air pollutants in beauty salons could be reduced.