Zhao Haiping, Fu Shaoxiong, Chen Xiaoyu
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Department of Digitalization, Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Inf Process Manag. 2020 Nov;57(6):102354. doi: 10.1016/j.ipm.2020.102354. Epub 2020 Jul 19.
Nowadays, it is a common practice for healthcare professionals to spread medical knowledge by posting health articles on social media. However, promoting users' intention to share such articles is challenging because the extent of sharing intention varies in their eHealth literacy (high or low) and the content valence of the article that they are exposed to (positive or negative). This study investigates boundary conditions under which eHealth literacy and content valence help to increase users' intention to share by introducing a moderating role of confirmation bias-a tendency to prefer information that conforms to their initial beliefs. A 2 (eHealth literacy: high vs. low) × 2 (content valence: positive vs. negative) between-subjects experiment was conducted in a sample of 80 participants. Levels of confirmation bias ranging from extreme negative bias to extreme positive bias among the participants were assessed during the experiment. Results suggested that: (1) users with a high level of eHealth literacy were more likely to share positive health articles when they had extreme confirmation bias; (2) users with a high level of eHealth literacy were more likely to share negative health articles when they had moderate confirmation bias or no confirmation bias; (3) users with a low level of eHealth literacy were more likely to share health articles regardless of positive or negative content valence when they had moderate positive confirmation bias. This study sheds new light on the role of confirmation bias in users' health information sharing. Also, it offers implications for health information providers who want to increase the visibility of their online health articles: they need to consider readers' eHealth literacy and confirmation bias when deciding the content valence of the articles.
如今，医疗保健专业人员通过在社交媒体上发布健康文章来传播医学知识已成为一种常见做法。然而，提高用户分享此类文章的意愿具有挑战性，因为分享意愿的程度因其电子健康素养（高或低）以及他们所接触文章的内容效价（正面或负面）而有所不同。本研究通过引入确认偏差（一种倾向于偏好符合其初始信念的信息的倾向）的调节作用，调查了电子健康素养和内容效价有助于提高用户分享意愿的边界条件。在80名参与者的样本中进行了一项2（电子健康素养：高与低）×2（内容效价：正面与负面）的组间实验。在实验过程中评估了参与者中从极端负面偏差到极端正面偏差的确认偏差水平。结果表明：（1）电子健康素养水平高的用户在具有极端确认偏差时更有可能分享正面健康文章；（2）电子健康素养水平高的用户在具有中等确认偏差或无确认偏差时更有可能分享负面健康文章；（3）电子健康素养水平低的用户在具有中等正面确认偏差时，无论文章内容是正面还是负面，都更有可能分享健康文章。本研究为确认偏差在用户健康信息分享中的作用提供了新的见解。此外，它还为希望提高其在线健康文章可见性的健康信息提供者提供了启示：他们在决定文章的内容效价时需要考虑读者的电子健康素养和确认偏差。
