TY - JOUR
T1 - Influence of online comments on smokers’ E-cigarette attitude
T2 - Opinion climate, review fraud, and resistance to persuasion
AU - Shi, Rui
AU - Liu, Jiaying
AU - Cappella, Joseph N.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Objective: This study examined the effect of online comments on smokers’ attitude toward trying e-cigarettes. It also explored the effect of an unobtrusive forewarning in increasing smokers’ resistance to online review fraud. Design: 739 adult smokers participated in an experiment with a 2 comment valence (supportive vs. oppositional) x 3 comment deception warning (no warning vs. early warning vs. late warning) + 1 control (no comment) factorial design. Smokers watched two e-cigarette commercials. The control group received only the ads. The treatment groups saw 10 to 12 comments following each ad. Main Outcome Measure: E-cigarette attitude. Results: Smokers who read supportive (M = 5.28, SD = 1.37), oppositional (M = 4.96, SD = 1.53), and no comment (M = 5.44, SD = 1.20) showed significant difference on their e-cigarettes attitude, p =.004. When the comment climate was overly in favor of e-cigarettes, warning smokers of review fraud could raise their awareness of comment deception, increase defensive processing, decrease their social identification with commenters, and eventually lower their interest in trying e-cigarettes. Conclusion: The overall opinion climate in the form of aggregated valence of comments could sway smokers’ e-cigarette attitude. Smokers could benefit from warnings of online review fraud.
AB - Objective: This study examined the effect of online comments on smokers’ attitude toward trying e-cigarettes. It also explored the effect of an unobtrusive forewarning in increasing smokers’ resistance to online review fraud. Design: 739 adult smokers participated in an experiment with a 2 comment valence (supportive vs. oppositional) x 3 comment deception warning (no warning vs. early warning vs. late warning) + 1 control (no comment) factorial design. Smokers watched two e-cigarette commercials. The control group received only the ads. The treatment groups saw 10 to 12 comments following each ad. Main Outcome Measure: E-cigarette attitude. Results: Smokers who read supportive (M = 5.28, SD = 1.37), oppositional (M = 4.96, SD = 1.53), and no comment (M = 5.44, SD = 1.20) showed significant difference on their e-cigarettes attitude, p =.004. When the comment climate was overly in favor of e-cigarettes, warning smokers of review fraud could raise their awareness of comment deception, increase defensive processing, decrease their social identification with commenters, and eventually lower their interest in trying e-cigarettes. Conclusion: The overall opinion climate in the form of aggregated valence of comments could sway smokers’ e-cigarette attitude. Smokers could benefit from warnings of online review fraud.
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U2 - 10.1080/08870446.2021.1893320
DO - 10.1080/08870446.2021.1893320
M3 - Article
C2 - 33722112
AN - SCOPUS:85102793442
SN - 0887-0446
VL - 37
SP - 780
EP - 798
JO - Psychology and Health
JF - Psychology and Health
IS - 6
ER -