Unrealistic Hope and Unnecessary Fear: Exploring How Sensationalistic News Stories Influence Health Behavior Motivation

Motivating Protective Behavior against COVID-19: Fear Versus Hope

OBJECTIVES

Based on protection motivation theory, we investigate how indicators of threat perception (perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, and fear arousal) and coping appraisal (hope) are associated with older people's motivation to engage in protective behavior after the outbreak of COVID-19.

METHODS

We use multivariate regression analyses with a sample of 40,282 individuals from 26 countries participating in the SHARE Corona Survey.

RESULTS

We find that 15% of all respondents stayed home completely-mainly the oldest and vulnerable people with prior health risk conditions. On average, older Europeans responded strongly to the recommended protective behavior measures (6 out of 7 measures adopted). Among the threat perception indicators, fear arousal is the main motivator for protective behavior, whereas the coping appraisal indicator hope shows an equally strong association.

DISCUSSION

Given the negative health effects of fear, our findings may help evaluate and revise governmental policy responses and communication strategies.

Effects of Scanning Health News Headlines on Trust in Science: An Emotional Framing Perspective

Rooted in the emotions-as-frames model (EFM), this research examines how hope, fear, and annoyance are evoked through health news headline scanning, and how these emotions influence perceptions of news and medical science institutions as well as health behavioral intentions. A sample of U.S. adults (N = 327) were assigned to one of four headline framing conditions expected to associate with different emotions (positive future frame-hope; threat frame-fear/anxiety; reversal frame-annoyance; and control-neutral) and then asked about their emotional states, trust in science and news, and health-related behavioral intentions. Overall, health news headlines generated more hope than any other emotion across all conditions, and positive future-framed headlines evoked more hope than other framed headlines. Felt hope, in turn, generated greater trust in news and science, higher expectations of medical breakthroughs and cures, and greater intention to engage in preventative health behaviors. Felt anxiety had marginal positive benefits whereas felt annoyance negatively impacted the outcomes of interest. Notably, felt emotion mediated the headline frame-outcome relationships in the positive future/hope condition. These findings offer some support for the EFM and demonstrate that scanning headlines imbued with specific emotional frames can influence important health-related outcomes through the emotions they evoke. We discuss both the theoretical and practical implication of these findings.

Effects of communicating lifetime risks and screening rates of colorectal cancer and breast cancer

Colorectal cancer and breast cancer are among the most common types of cancer in the United States, and cancer screening is an effective way to detect and treat these cancers early. Health news stories, medical websites, and media campaigns regularly highlight the national lifetime risks of specific cancers and their screening rates, but recent research suggests that people tend to overestimate the prevalence of health problems but underestimate the prevalence of disease prevention behaviors in the absence of numerical information. This study featured two online experiments, one focused on breast cancer (N = 632) and one focused on colorectal cancer (N = 671), to examine the effects of communicating national cancer lifetime risks and screening rates among samples of screening-eligible adults in the United States. Findings confirmed prior work in showing that people overestimated colorectal/breast cancer lifetime risks but underestimated colorectal/breast cancer screening rates. Communicating the national lifetime risk of dying from colorectal/breast cancer lowered people's national risk estimates, which in turn was associated with lower perceived cancer risks for themselves. In contrast, communicating the national colorectal/breast cancer screening rate increased people's estimates of the prevalence of cancer screening, which in turn was associated with higher perceived self-efficacy to engage in cancer screening and greater screening intentions. We conclude that efforts to promote cancer screening may benefit from messages that include data on national cancer screening rates but may not benefit from including national rates of lifetime cancer risks.

PRISM and Emotions: Understanding the Role of Fear and Hope toward Vaccine Information Seeking Intentions

Vaccines represent one of the greatest health efforts to help combat diseases, yet they often evoke emotional responses among individuals. These emotional responses can influence an individual's desire to seek information about vaccines. The purpose of this research was to examine these relationships further using the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model (PRISM) and explore the role of emotions, specifically fear and hope, on vaccine-related information seeking intentions. Two separate models were tested using the PRISM model, one for fear and one for hope. Results suggest fear did not have a significant direct effect on vaccine information seeking, while hope had a positive and significant relationship. Interestingly, both attitude toward seeking and perceived current knowledge each had a positive relationship with information seeking intentions in the fear and hope models. Future research should continue to examine the role of specific emotions within the PRISM model to better predict information seeking intentions.

Geohealth Policy Benefits Are Mediated by Interacting Natural, Engineered, and Social Processes

Interest in health implications of Earth science research has significantly increased. Articles frequently dispense policy advice, for example, to reduce human contaminant exposures. Recommendations such as fish consumption advisories rarely reflect causal reasoning around tradeoffs or anticipate how scientific information will be received and processed by the media or vulnerable communities. Health is the product of interacting social and physical processes, yet predictable responses are often overlooked. Analysis of physical and social mechanisms, and health and non-health tradeoffs, is needed to achieve policy benefits rather than "policy impact." Dedicated funding mechanisms would improve the quality and availability of these analyses.

Hope over fear: The interplay between threat information and hope appeal corrections in debunking early COVID-19 misinformation

The spreading of COVID-19 misinformation paralleled increasing fear towards the pandemic reported worldwide in its early stages. Yet research on the emotional basis for misinformation susceptibility and how emotional appeals may help reduce COVID-19 related misperceptions remains limited. To address this gap, we conducted a 2 (threat from COVID-19: yes vs. no) × 4 (correction conditions: none vs. factual correction vs. factual correction + words of optimistic outlook & individual efficacy vs. factual correction + words of optimistic outlook & collective efficacy) between-participant factorial experiment among an online sample of Chinese residents (N = 836) in June 2020. Misinformation about COVID-19 treatments and mitigation was presented in all conditions. Across five misinformation topics, threat information induced more misperceptions while all three types of corrections mitigated threat information's deleterious impact and improved belief accuracy. Importantly, corrections incorporating hope appeals showed enhanced effectiveness in improving belief accuracy when threat information was present whereas factual corrections absent hope appeals did not show similar sensitivity towards threat information. For hope appeal corrections, their indirect effects on desirable downstream behavioral intentions through corrected beliefs were stronger with than without preceding threat information. Our study thus demonstrated the potential of deploying hope appeals to fight the COVID-19 infodemic in China and beyond when threat information is prevalent, while highlighting the importance of studying the roles of emotional appeals in health misperception formation and correction.

The Effects of Vaccine Efficacy Information on Vaccination Intentions Through Perceived Response Efficacy and Hope

Response efficacy information indicating the effectiveness of a recommended behavior in risk reduction is an important component of health communication. For example, many messages regarding COVID-19 vaccines featured numerical vaccine efficacy rates in preventing infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. While the relationship between disease risk perceptions and fear has been well established, we know less about the psychological factors involved in communicating vaccine efficacy information, such as response efficacy perceptions and hope. This study examines the effects of numerical vaccine efficacy information and message framing on vaccination intentions and their relationship to perceived response efficacy and hope, using a fictitious infectious disease similar to COVID-19. Findings suggest that communicating a high efficacy rate of the vaccine in preventing severe illness increased perceived response efficacy, which in turn boosted vaccination intention directly and indirectly through increasing hope. Also, fear about the virus was positively associated with hope about the vaccine. Implications of using response efficacy information and hope appeals in health communication and vaccination promotion are discussed.

Appealing to Individual Fears or Social Norms: How Can the Public Be Persuaded to Accept COVID-19 Vaccination through Risk Communication?

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, improving the public's understanding of the increased efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines through scientific risk communication campaigns, promoting the public's acceptance and willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccines, and forming collective actions at the social level will deeply impact on the effect of COVID-19 prevention in various countries, which is also a key factor that governments need to address urgently. Previous research on risk communication has mostly focused on microscopic perspectives of how to stimulate individual self-protection behaviors by awakening threat and efficacy perceptions; however, a lack of observation of social collective actions means there is a risk of failure regarding COVID-19 epidemic reduction and prevention. In this regard, this study was based on the issue of vaccination in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic through a highly regulated and controlled research experiment in China (n = 165), which was designed to examine the impact of two risk communication frameworks, appealing to individual fears and appealing to social norms, on the public's acceptance and recommendations of COVID-19 vaccines, thus outlining the path of action from individual protection to collective epidemic prevention. Both the "fear appeals" framework and the "social norms" framework were found to have a positive effect on the Chinese public's vaccination acceptance. Specifically, social norms information may increase vaccination acceptance by enhancing the public's perceptions of social responsibility, while fear appeals information may reduce their perceptions of threat and social pressure to get the vaccine. Female and highly educated groups were more likely to refuse to recommend vaccination after reading the risk communication information. These results can be a useful supplement to the theory and practice of risk communication.

Understanding the Behavioral Intentions about Holidays in the Shadow of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Application of Protection Motivation Theory

The research aims to investigate the emotional response and protective behaviors of domestic tourists’ post-pandemic period and their holiday intentions or holiday avoidance behaviors. For this reason, understanding tourist behavior during and after significant tourism crises is critical for the recovery of the tourism industry. To achieve this aim, first, we examine the effects of perceived vulnerability and perceived severity factors in the threat appraisal of domestic tourists, the effects of the response efficacy, response cost, and self-efficacy factors in the coping appraisal, and the effects of fear and hope factors as the anticipatory emotion responses regarding protection motivation. Second, we measure the effect of protection motivation on the factors of taking a vacation and avoiding a vacation, which constitute behavioral intention. This study applies the health-related protection motivation theory to explore how domestic tourists’ behavioral intentions are influenced by Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the post-pandemic period. The study includes citizens residing in Türkiye who have had at least one-holiday experience in the last five years. Online questionnaire surveys were administered to 1391 domestic tourists. In the research, in addition to testing the validity and reliability of the scales, simple linear regression analysis was used to test the model based on the hypotheses experimentally. The results show that factors have internal consistency reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Response cost and hope variables are ineffective in predicting the protection motivation, and all other effect sizes (f2) are positive. All hypotheses have been supported. However, the response cost (β = −0.029, p > 0.05) has no effect on protection motivation, thus only one is rejected. As a result, domestic tourists would like to maintain the assurance of their health and safety during a holiday. An integrated model with protection motivation theory and different theories as theory of planned behavior should be implemented. As a result, this will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the complexity involved in the sustainable behavioral intentions in the post-COVID era.

Cognitive and Affective Routes to the Adoption of Protective Behaviors Against Health Risks of PM2.5 in China

The current research examines how risk appraisals of PM2.5 influence Chinese people's behavioral intentions to adopt government-recommended protective behaviors through negative affect. In testing the appraisal-based protective behavior model, this research also takes institutional trust and media sensationalism into account. An online survey is conducted with participants (N = 1,569) randomly drawn from heavily polluted Chinese regions. As predicted, negative affect mediates the effects of perceived susceptibility and perceived severity on individuals' intentions to take preventive measures against the PM2.5 risk. Institutional trust appears to increase people's behavioral intentions. However, media sensationalism decreases people's behavioral intentions.

Health Beliefs in Association with Behaviors in Compliance with COVID-19 Public Health Guidelines: A Cross-sectional Study

This study investigated the preventive health behaviors against the COVID-19 outbreak in Turkey according to the health belief model. The relationships between perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, and preventive health behaviors were examined. 1401 participants consisting of 992 (70.8%) females and 409 (29.3%) males participated in an online survey. Independent groups t-test, hierarchical regression analysis and Process Macro were used for analyses. The findings showed that women perceived higher levels of severity of the disease and the benefits of preventive health behaviors than men. Men perceived more barriers to preventive health behaviors. The levels of anxiety and preventive health behaviors of women were higher than men. In regression analysis, male gender and perceived barriers were found as risk factors for preventive health behaviors. However, female gender, perceived severity, and benefits were protective factors for preventive health behaviors. People with low and moderate anxiety levels were more likely to comply with preventive health behaviors.

Superlatives in news articles reporting non-FDA approved indications for use of cannabis and cannabis products with a focus on psychiatric disorders: a cross-sectional analysis

The exaggerated language used in news articles to describe the benefits of cannabis for conditions without FDA indications may mislead the public and healthcare providers. Thus, this study's objective was to investigate the use of exaggerated language in news articles focused on cannabis and cannabis-derived products. Using a cross-sectional study design, we searched Google News from March 3, 2020, and September 3, 2019 for 11 prespecified superlative terms along with the search terms "cannabis," "cannabidiol," "pot," "marijuana," "weed," and "CBD." Articles were evaluated for these exaggerative terms describing cannabis and cannabis-derived products along with additional news article characteristics. Screening and data extraction occurred in a masked, duplicate fashion. We identified 612 superlative terms in 374 different news articles focused on cannabis and cannabis-derived products from 262 news outlets. Only 26 (of 374, 7.0%) news articles provided clinical data. In total, superlative terms were used to describe cannabis and cannabis-derived products for the treatment of 91 medical conditions, of which only 2 are FDA approved. The most common psychiatric disorder indicated was anxiety disorder appearing in 88 news articles. Superlatives in news articles covering the treatment of psychiatric illnesses with cannabis and cannabis-derived products are common.

Co-created Future Scenarios as a Tool to Communicate Sustainable Development in Coastal Communities in Palawan, Philippines

Scenarios can be used to communicate potential future changes and engage and connect different audiences in exploring sustainable solutions. Communicating scenarios using creative visualisation, co-creation and a focus on local contexts are especially promising. This research is conducted on the island of Palawan in the Philippines as part of the GCRF Blue Communities project. With a quasi-experimental design, we investigate the psychological and emotional effects of the engagement with future scenarios as a tool for communicating sustainability. Together with local stakeholders and community members, three distinct, locally relevant scenario narratives (Business as Usual, Best Case, and Worst Case) have been co-created. Subsequently, a sample of N = 109 local high school students was asked to creatively engage with these scenario narratives. Intentions to engage in sustainable behaviour, perceived behavioural control, ascription of responsibility, consideration of future consequences, six basic emotions and connectedness to place were assessed before and after the activity via paper-pencil administrated questionnaires. A mixed-model analysis showed significant increases in intentions to engage in sustainable behaviour, however, this increase disappeared when consideration of future consequences was added as a covariate, suggesting a mediating effect. The level of consideration of future consequences also increased significantly after engaging with any of the future scenarios, which questions the common interpretation of consideration of future consequences as a trait variable. Perceived behavioural control significantly increased following the engagement with each of the scenarios whereas ascription of responsibility and connectedness to place did not show any changes. Overall, the two most emotion-evoking scenarios, Best Case Scenario and Worst Case Scenario, turn out as superior over the Business as Usual Scenario, which points to the relevance of emotional framing for effective messaging in our sample. This is the first systematic, quantitative assessment of the effects of future scenarios as a communication tool.

The presence of sensational language describing stem cell therapies in news articles: a cross-sectional analysis

Aim: News articles and their use of sensational language have the potential to influence health behaviors and decisions, thus the purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of sensational language (i.e., superlatives) describing stem cell therapies in public news articles. Materials & methods: In this study, we conducted a Google News search for news articles using superlatives to exaggerate the efficacy of stem cell therapies. Results: Our analysis included 262 news articles from 193 news outlets using 714 unique superlatives to describe stem cells. Health on the Net's Code of Conduct certification was applied to determine credibility of each site. Conclusion: These results demonstrate the need for improving news reporting surrounding stem cell research and therapies.

The crafting of hope: Contextualising add-ons in the treatment trajectories of IVF patients

The proliferation and popularity of additional treatments in IVF, also known as add-ons, has generated widespread discussion and controversy in the UK, where concerns have addressed the lack of evidence to support the efficacy and safety of these treatments, their cost, and their connection to a wider context of privatisation of fertility treatment. Drawing on 42 interviews with IVF patients, this article explores the role of hope in the appeal of add-ons from the patient perspective. The analysis is presented in two parts: firstly, we investigate the role of hope in patients' decision-making on treatment, contextualising add-ons in the broader trajectory of their IVF experience; secondly, we examine how patients navigate the offer of add-ons, focusing on the role of hope in how they rationalise their decisions on whether to include them in their fertility treatment. Our analysis shows how patients craft their hope to navigate the increasing number of available options in their quest to find the treatment(s) that will "work" for them. We suggest that the imperative for patients to explore all options is intensified with the emergence of add-ons, which produces a novel context and version of a "hope technology".

A Media Biopsy: Examining the Quality of Cancer Reporting in Australia, 1997 and 2017

This article investigates the quality of cancer reporting from a time of prosperity to a time of austerity for the press. Australia is a useful case study because of its concentrated press media market that has experienced a decline in the number of newsroom reporters from the 20^th to the 21^st century. We undertake a content analysis of news stories published in 1997 and 2017 about cancer treatments and cancer medical research. Using keyword searching techniques of the news database Factiva, 633 news reports about cancer were detected. Of these, 120 stories met the research criteria. Each story was assessed across eight variables using a coding tool, the Media Quality Index (MQI). The study finds 2017 stories had lower scores (equating to less quality) across all eight variables compared to the 1997 cohort. Of statistical significance, 2017 stories were less likely to quantify the benefits of a proposed intervention, while stories discussing medical research were less comprehensive about research findings. The 2017 stories were less likely to discuss side effects or the potential for harm, and were more sensational, with incongruent headlines compared to content. The empirical evidence pointing to a deterioration in mainstream media reporting about cancer has implications for broader health literacy. It may foster unrealistic patient expectations about clinical practice and treatment options, with public policy implications such as overutilization of health services. The study serves as a reminder to medical practitioners that health communication directly with patients is vital as media reporting alone cannot reliably inform patients about their cancer diagnosis and treatment.

They promised this ten years ago. Effects of diabetes news characteristics on patients' perceptions and attitudes towards medical innovations and therapy adherence

Patients have ever-increasing access to web-based news about hopeful scientific developments that may or may not cure them in the future. Science communication experts agree that the quality of news provision is not always guaranteed. However, literature does not clarify in what way users are actually affected by typical news characteristics such as the news object (described developmental phase of an innovation), the news source (degree of authority), and the news style (degree of language intensification). An online vignette experiment (N = 259) investigated causal relationships between characteristics of news about diabetes innovations and patients’ perceptions of future success, their interest in the innovation, and attitudes regarding current therapy adherence. Findings show that descriptions of success in mice led to higher estimations of future success chances than earlier and later developmental phases. Furthermore, news from a nonauthoritative source led to an increased interest in the innovation, and a more negative attitude towards current lifestyle advice. Lastly, the intensification of the language used in news messages showed slight adverse effects on the readers’ attitude. These findings, combined with their small effect sizes, support the optimistic view that diabetes patients are generally critical assessors of health news and that future research on this topic should focus on affected fragile subgroups.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Positive Psychology: The Role of News and Trust in News on Mental Health and Well-Being

As of writing of this paper, over 94 million people worldwide have been diagnosed with COVID-19 infection and over 2 million people have died. During crisis situations, people seek news to gain information and reduce uncertainty. Although news could provide some means of control, the constant access may also cause emotional distress. Research suggests that consumption of crisis news leads to high psychological distress and fear that may impact intentions to engage in healthy behavior. Fake news and widespread misinformation during this pandemic have obliterated public trust in news which can also affect mental health. Therefore, in this research we explore the impact of news exposure on mental well-being and test for plausible explanations. Utilizing survey methodology, we examine the role of news exposure on perceived stress, happiness, satisfaction, gratitude and the moderating impact of interest in COVID-19 news on the same. In addition, we propose trust in news as a mediator of the relationship between news exposure and abovementioned variables. The findings suggest that high levels of news exposure, combined with low levels of interest in COVID-19 news, led people to experience more stress and low satisfaction, gratitude, and happiness. However, when interest in COVID-19 news was high, people experienced more gratitude and happiness with increasing exposure. High levels of news exposure led to lower levels of trust that led to low satisfaction and happiness. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

What affected Chinese parents' decisions about tuberculosis (TB) treatment: Implications based on a cross-sectional survey

OBJECTIVE

Although progress has been made in tuberculosis (TB) treatment, China still remains one of the high-burden TB countries. One important reason that has not received sufficient scholarly attention is that Chinese individuals tend to underestimate the threat of TB. This contributed to the high rate of delay in seeking TB treatment and noncompliance with doctors' regimen. Hence, this research examined how TB knowledge affected Chinese parents' risk perceptions and their efficacy appraisal in TB treatment, and how their risk perception and efficacy appraisal affected their intentions to seek timely TB treatment for their children and adhere to doctors' regimen.

METHODS

We conducted an online cross-sectional survey with 1129 parents of children attending kindergarten, primary school, and middle school in Shajing, a region with high TB incidence in China. Perceived severity of TB threat to self and to others, perceived susceptibility, response efficacy, and self-efficacy were measured, in addition to TB knowledge and intentions to seek timely TB treatment and adhere to doctors' regimens.

RESULTS

Ordinal least squares regression demonstrated that TB knowledge was positively associated with perceived severity of TB threat to self, perceived severity of TB threat to others, perceived susceptibility, response efficacy, and self-efficacy, but it did not affect their medical decisions. In addition, binary logistic regression revealed that response efficacy and self-efficacy predicted both intentions positively, and perceived severity of TB threat to self only enhanced Chinese individuals' intention to follow doctors' regimens.

CONCLUSION

Health education aimed at knowledge improvement may be effective in changing one's perceptions of the given health threat but may not be effective to change their behavior. Thus, practitioners need to focus on changing Chinese parents' perceptions of TB rather than simply improving their knowledge. Specifically, it is necessary to lower their efficacy in self-management and enhance their perceived infectiousness of TB.

Physical Distancing Behavior: The Role of Emotions, Personality, Motivations, and Moral Decision-Making

OBJECTIVE

Physical distancing behavior (PDB) is a key disease prevention strategy for limiting the spread of COVID-19. In order to effectively encourage it among adolescents, it is necessary to understand the associated mental mechanisms. Health behavior theories suggest that emotions, personality, motivation, and moral disengagement could all play a role. On the basis of a longitudinal study, we investigated the importance of these factors in predicting PDB.

METHODS

The participants were 347 adolescents residing in Italy. Data were collected in four waves starting from 1 year before the pandemic. A structural equation model based on health behavior theory was tested.

RESULTS

After the COVID-19 national lockdown, adolescents experienced fewer positive emotions and more negative emotions compared with 1 year earlier. Nevertheless, these emotional changes, and adolescents' personality (except for openness to experiences), were not related to the adoption of PDB. Instead, the autonomous motivation of adolescents significantly predicted a higher likelihood to adopt PDB by increasing the intention to engage in this behavior and, more indirectly, by substantially decreasing moral disengagement, which was negatively related to PDB. In contrast, controlled motivation corresponded to significantly higher levels of moral disengagement and predicted less likelihood of adopting PDB.

CONCLUSIONS

Messages and interventions targeted at adolescents should be oriented towards supporting autonomy, emphasizing the personal and social value of PDB. Communications should avoid the use of coercive strategies based on eliciting emotions such as shame and guilt in adolescents who do not adopt PDB, which appear to trigger off mechanisms of moral disengagement.

Information Sources, Risk Perception, and Efficacy Appraisal's Prediction of Engagement in Protective Behaviors Against COVID-19 in China: Repeated Cross-sectional Survey

Background

As the COVID-19 pandemic has become a major public health threat worldwide, it is critical to understand what factors affect individual engagement in protective actions. Because of its authoritarian political system and state-owned media system, how Chinese individuals engaged in protective actions against COVID-19 might be different compared to other countries.

Objective

The purpose of this study is to examine how the source of information about COVID-19, Chinese individuals’ risk perception of COVID-19 (ie, perceived severity and perceived susceptibility), and their efficacy appraisal in controlling COVID-19 (ie, response efficacy and self-efficacy) affected their engagement in protective actions. Additionally, this study aims to investigate whether there is any difference in these relationships throughout the duration of this pandemic.

Methods

A six-wave repeated cross-sectional survey (N=1942) was conducted in six major cities in China between February 7 and April 23, 2020. Participants’ reliance on expert versus inexpert sources for information about COVID-19, their perceived severity of and susceptibility to COVID-19, their response efficacy and self-efficacy, and their engagement in protective actions (staying at home, wearing a face mask, and washing hands) were measured. Demographic variables (sex, age, income, education, and city of residence), knowledge of COVID-19, and self-rated health condition were controlled.

Results

Reliance on expert sources did not become the major factor that motivated these actions until wave 3, and the negative effect of inexpert sources on these actions was limited to wave 2. Perceived severity encouraged some protective behaviors but its effect varied depending on the specific behavior. In addition, perceived severity exhibited a stronger effect on these behaviors compared to perceived susceptibility. The positive effect of response efficacy was only significant at waves 1 and 2, and limited to certain behaviors.

Conclusions

Chinese individuals’ engagement in protective behaviors might not entirely be their autonomous decision but a result of compliance with executive orders. After the early outbreak, expert sources started to facilitate protective behaviors, suggesting that it might take time to develop trust in these sources. The facilitating effect of perceived severity lasted throughout the duration of the pandemic, but that of response efficacy was limited to the early stage.

Clinical impact of high-profile animal-based research reported in the UK national press

OBJECTIVES

We evaluated animal-based biomedical 'breakthroughs' reported in the UK national press in 1995 (25 years prior to the conclusion of this study). Based on evidence of overspeculative reporting of biomedical research in other areas (eg, press releases and scientific papers), we specifically examined animal research in the media, asking, 'In a given year, what proportion of animal research "breakthroughs"' published in the UK national press had translated, more than 20 years later, to approved interventions?'

METHODS

We searched the Nexis media database (LexisNexis.com) for animal-based biomedical reports in the UK national press. The only restrictions were that the intervention should be specific, such as a named drug, gene, biomedical pathway, to facilitate follow-up, and that there should be claims of some clinical promise.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Were any interventions approved for human use? If so, when and by which agency? If not, why, and how far did development proceed? Were any other, directly related interventions approved? Did any of the reports overstate human relevance?

RESULTS

Overspeculation and exaggeration of human relevance was evident in all the articles examined. Of 27 unique published 'breakthroughs', only one had clearly resulted in human benefit. Twenty were classified as failures, three were inconclusive and three were partially successful.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of animal-based preclinical research studies are commonly overstated in media reports, to prematurely imply often-imminent 'breakthroughs' relevant to human medicine.

Risk or Efficacy? How Psychological Distance Influences Climate Change Engagement

Construal-level theory suggests that high-level abstract features weigh more in people's decision-making at farther distance, while low-level concrete features weigh more at closer distance. Based on this, we propose that psychological distance will influence the effect of risk versus efficacy framing on climate change engagement. In particular, risk perception related to the end-state expectancy of climate change mitigation should influence people's climate change engagement at farther distance. In contrast, efficacy perception related to the perceived feasibility of attaining end-state goals should influence engagement at closer distance. Results from an experimental survey based on a national sample that is both demographically and geographically representative (N = 1,282) supported our proposition. At closer spatial distance, perceived efficacy boosted by efficacy framing increased participants' intention to perform climate mitigation behaviors. In contrast, at farther distance, risk framing increased behavioral intention through heightened risk perception. Based on these findings, we suggest that when communicating distant and abstract risks, highlighting their disastrous impacts may better motivate action. In contrast, when communicating impending and concrete risks, stressing the feasibility of action may have stronger motivational potential.

Effects of Media Exposure to Conflicting Information About Mammography: Results From a Population-based Survey Experiment

BACKGROUND

Although there is growing theoretical and empirical support for the proposition that media exposure to conflicting health information negatively influences public understanding and behavior, few studies have causally linked exposure to conflict with undesirable outcomes. Such outcomes might be particularly likely in the context of mammography, given widespread media attention to conflicting recommendations about the age at and frequency with which average-risk women should be screened for breast cancer.

PURPOSE

The current study tests whether exposure to conflicting information about mammography negatively influences women's affective and cognitive responses and examines whether effects vary by socioeconomic position.

METHODS

We conducted an online survey experiment in 2016 with a population-based sample of U.S. women aged 35-55 (N = 1,474). Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions that differed in the level of conflict about mammography presented in a news story (no, low, medium, or high conflict), stratifying by poverty level.

RESULTS

Greater exposure to conflict increased women's negative emotional responses to the story they read, their confusion about and backlash toward cancer prevention recommendations and research, and their ambivalence about mammography and other types of cancer screening, though ambivalence leveled off at high levels of exposure. There was little evidence that effects varied across socioeconomic position.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings add to the growing evidence base documenting undesirable outcomes of exposure to conflicting health information. Future research should examine whether the negative affective and cognitive responses observed translate into behavior, which could have implications for both health campaigns and patient-provider communication.

The Needle and the Damage Done: Framing the Heroin Epidemic in the Cincinnati Enquirer

This case study focuses on the Cincinnati Enquirer's coverage of the heroin epidemic. The Enquirer started the first heroin beat in January 2016, and it could serve as a model for other news organizations. Reporters used combinations of episodic, thematic, public health, and crime and law enforcement frames in their coverage. These news frames are discussed in terms of how individualism-collectivism, geographic location, available resources, and social determinants inform journalistic and societal discussions of the heroin epidemic in terms of solutions instead of responsibility or blame.

Fear-Mongering or Fact-Driven? Illuminating the Interplay of Objective Risk and Emotion-Evoking Form in the Response to Epidemic News

This study examined the veracity of the common assumption that news coverage of epidemic outbreaks spawns heightened fears and risk perceptions. An online experiment with 1,324 participants investigated the interplay of the form of news coverage (factual/emotion-laden) and key aspects of actual risk (low/high vulnerability, low/high severity) on audience responses. Participants read one of eight versions of a newspaper article followed by measures on risk perceptions, negative affect, behavioral intentions, and perceived sensationalism. Risk perceptions and fear were primarily driven by objective risk characteristics, whereas emotion-laden news form only increased perceptions of disease severity, not of fear or personal vulnerability.

What’s Trending in Infection Control? Scoping and Narrative Reviews

OBJECTIVE

To explore the trends in infection control peer-reviewed journals, mainstream media, and blogs written by infection control professionals

DESIGN

Narrative and scoping reviews

METHODS

Narrative and scoping reviews were performed to identify trending infection prevention and control topics from international journals, national news websites, newspapers, and so-called grey literature throughout 2015. Data were analyzed using word frequencies, and results are displayed in word clouds.

RESULTS

For 2015, our search identified 6 news websites with a total of published 116 articles, 71 articles from selected newspapers, and 214 publications from infection control websites. In total, 1,059 journal articles were initially identified; 98 articles were anonymous and thus were excluded, leaving 961 articles in the reviews. The terms ‘superbug’ and ‘antibiotics’ were most commonly used in titles of news websites and newspapers, whereas the terms ‘infection’ and ‘prevention’ were most commonly used in infection control websites or blogs. The word frequency differences among the 4 selected journals reflected their respective specialties.

CONCLUSION

In infection prevention and control, the integration of a range of mediums is necessary to best serve public interests. Whether the aim is advocacy, general health information dissemination, or warnings of imminent risk, health researchers have access to multiple forums with different strengths through which to influence public risk perceptions and responses.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:1098–1102