Journal
PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
Volume 105, Issue -, Pages 97-103Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2017.08.024
Keywords
Electronic cigarette; News coverage; Conflicting information; Beliefs
Funding
- World-Leading University Fostering Program at Seoul National University
- Institute of Communication Research at Seoul National University
- National Research Foundation of Korea [2016016761]
- Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health Grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development
- Office of Research on Women's Health
- National Institute on Aging [2 K12-HD055887]
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News coverage of novel tobacco products including e-cigarettes has framed the use of these products with both positive and negative slants. Conflicting information may shape public knowledge, perceptions of e-cigarettes, and their harms. The objective of this study is to assess effects of exposure to conflicting news coverage on US adults' beliefs about harms and benefits of e-cigarette use. We conducted a one-way between-subjects randomized controlled experiment in 2016 to compare the effects of viewing either 1) positive, 2) negative, 3) both positive and negative (conflicting) news headlines about the safety of using e-cigarettes, or 4) no-message. Participants were 2056 adults aged 18 and older from an online survey panel. Outcomes were beliefs about harms (3-item scale, alpha = 0.76) and benefits (3-item scale, alpha = 0.82) of using e-cigarettes. Participants who viewed negative headlines reported increased beliefs about harms (B = 0.164, p = 0.039) and lower beliefs about benefits of e-cigarette use (B = -0.216, p = 0.009), compared with those in the positive headlines condition. These differences were replicated in subgroup analyses among never e-cigarette users. In addition, never e-cigarette users who viewed conflicting headlines reported lower beliefs about benefits of e-cigarette use (B = -0.221, p = 0.030) than the positive headlines condition. Valence of news coverage about e-cigarettes (positive, negative, or conflicting) could influence people's beliefs about harms and benefits of e-cigarette use.
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