Source Similarity and Social Media Health Messages: Extending Construal Level Theory to Message Sources

Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking
Rachel Young

Abstract

Social media users post messages about health goals and behaviors to online social networks. Compared with more traditional sources of health communication such as physicians or health journalists, peer sources are likely to be perceived as more socially close or similar, which influences how messages are processed. This experimental study uses construal level theory of psychological distance to predict how mediated health messages from peers influence health-related cognition and behavioral intention. Participants were exposed to source cues that identified peer sources as being either highly attitudinally and demographically similar to or different from participants. As predicted by construal level theory, participants who perceived sources of social media health messages as highly similar listed a greater proportion of beliefs about the feasibility of health behaviors and a greater proportion of negative beliefs, while participants who perceived sources as more dissimilar listed a greater proportion of positive beliefs about the health behaviors. Results of the study could be useful in determining how health messages from peers could encourage individuals to set realistic health goals.

References

Aug 3, 2007·Health Communication·Jeff NiederdeppeJ Sanford Schwartz
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Jan 1, 2008·Journal of Experimental Social Psychology·Ido LiviatanNira Liberman
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Jun 22, 2013·Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking·Jing ZhaoRichard Widdows

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Citations

Oct 4, 2018·Journal of Health Communication·Allison J LazardErin L Sutfin
May 8, 2020·Health Promotion International·Ann Dadich, Aila Khan

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Software Mentioned

CLT
Qualtrics
SPSS Statistics

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