{"title":"Congruent or Conflicted? The Effects of Prevalence and Valence Cues in Online Comments on Perceived Descriptive Norms Regarding e-Cigarette Use.","authors":"Fangcao Lu","doi":"10.1080/10410236.2025.2549082","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous studies have investigated how the valence of comments - whether they support or oppose the reported issue - and the prevalence cue in comments - whether others engage in the reported behavior or not - affect norm perception among those who are exposed to online news with comments. The present study advances this research by testing the combined effects of prevalence and valence cues on readers' perceived descriptive norms through the lens of the theory of evolutionary norm formation and the exemplification theory. The e-cigarette use in Hong Kong was chosen as the context due to its controversy. A 2 (Prevalence cue: high e-cigarette-use norm vs. low e-cigarette-use norm) × 2 (Valence cue: pro-e-cigarette vs. anti-e-cigarette) between-subjects experiment (<i>N</i> = 955) was conducted. Results indicated that comments suggesting a high prevalence of e-cigarette use were perceived as unrepresentative of the public, rendering the pro- or anti-e-cigarette valence of the comments irrelevant for inferring descriptive norms.</p>","PeriodicalId":12889,"journal":{"name":"Health Communication","volume":" ","pages":"1-11"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health Communication","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2025.2549082","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Previous studies have investigated how the valence of comments - whether they support or oppose the reported issue - and the prevalence cue in comments - whether others engage in the reported behavior or not - affect norm perception among those who are exposed to online news with comments. The present study advances this research by testing the combined effects of prevalence and valence cues on readers' perceived descriptive norms through the lens of the theory of evolutionary norm formation and the exemplification theory. The e-cigarette use in Hong Kong was chosen as the context due to its controversy. A 2 (Prevalence cue: high e-cigarette-use norm vs. low e-cigarette-use norm) × 2 (Valence cue: pro-e-cigarette vs. anti-e-cigarette) between-subjects experiment (N = 955) was conducted. Results indicated that comments suggesting a high prevalence of e-cigarette use were perceived as unrepresentative of the public, rendering the pro- or anti-e-cigarette valence of the comments irrelevant for inferring descriptive norms.
期刊介绍：
As an outlet for scholarly intercourse between medical and social sciences, this noteworthy journal seeks to improve practical communication between caregivers and patients and between institutions and the public. Outstanding editorial board members and contributors from both medical and social science arenas collaborate to meet the challenges inherent in this goal. Although most inclusions are data-based, the journal also publishes pedagogical, methodological, theoretical, and applied articles using both quantitative or qualitative methods.
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