Showing papers by "Joseph N. Cappella published in 2022"
TL;DR: This paper conducted a content analysis to identify content and frequencies of occurrence of disinformation and misinformation about the HPV vaccine posted on Twitter between December 15, 2019, through March 31, 2020, among 3876 unique, English language #HPV Tweets, excluding retweets.
Abstract: Although social media can be a source of guidance about HPV vaccination for parents, the information may not always be complete or accurate. We conducted a retrospective content analysis to identify content and frequencies of occurrence of disinformation and misinformation about HPV vaccine posted on Twitter between December 15, 2019, through March 31, 2020, among 3876 unique, English language #HPV Tweets, excluding retweets. We found that 24% of Tweets contained disinformation or misinformation, and the remaining 76% contained support/education. The most prevalent categories of disinformation/misinformation were (1) adverse health effects (59%), (2) mandatory vaccination (19%), and (3) inefficacy of the vaccine (14%). Among the adverse health effects Tweets, non-specific harm/injury (51%) and death (23%) were most frequent. Disinformation/misinformation Tweets vs. supportive Tweets had 5.44 (95% CI 5.33-5.56) times the incidence rate of retweet. In conclusion, almost one-quarter of #HPV Tweets contained disinformation or misinformation about the HPV vaccine and these tweets received higher audience engagement including likes and retweets. Implications for vaccine hesitancy are discussed.
3 citations
TL;DR: In this article , the authors investigated whether messages describing how a COVID-19 digital contact-tracing app protects users' privacy led to increased or decreased intentions to download the app by either calming privacy concerns or increasing their saliency.
Abstract: Digital contact-tracing smartphone apps have the potential to slow the spread of disease but are not widely used. We tested whether messages describing how a COVID-19 digital contact-tracing app protects users' privacy led to increased or decreased intentions to download the app by either calming privacy concerns or increasing their saliency.Randomized controlled trial.We recruited adult smartphone owners in the U.S. (oversampled for younger adults aged 18-34 years) in November 2020 through an online panel.Survey software randomly assigned 860 participants to 1 of 2 parallel messaging conditions (n=430 privacy assured, n=430 no privacy described).4-point scale of intention to use the app "if public health officials released a COVID Exposure Notification app in their state" that averaged likelihood to (1) download and install the app on their phone; (2) keep the app active on their phone; and (3) keep Bluetooth active on their phone (needed for the app to work).After removing incompletes, those who failed the manipulation checks, or those who had already downloaded a COVID-19 digital contact-tracing app, we analyzed 671 participants (n=330 privacy, n=341 no privacy) in 2021. There was no relationship between privacy condition and download intention (meanprivacy=2.69, meannoprivacy=2.69, b=0.01, 95% CI= -0.13, 0.15, p=0.922) but also no evidence that describing the app's security increased context-dependent privacy concerns (measured 3 ways). Instead, we found increased endorsement of data security in the privacy condition using a scale of beliefs about the app keeping privacy secure (meanprivacy=2.74, meannoprivacy=2.58, b=0.16, 95% CI=0.04, 0.28, p=0.009, small effect ω2=0.009).This study provides some evidence that people developing contact-tracing messaging campaigns do not need to worry that describing a digital contact-tracing app's privacy protections will backfire. Future mixed methods testing of messages about who has access to information-and for how long-may uncover new communication strategies to increase public trust in contact-tracing apps.This study is registered with AsPredicted#51826.