Researchers from Great Britain and the United States have found that incorrect information in Twitter affects people’s decision-making about their health. The article of scientists has been published in the magazine BMJ Open.
The participants of the study of scientists from Bristol and Pennsylvania universities were 2400 volunteers from the UK and the United States who did not use electronic cigarettes. At first they showed the information related to concern about health and asked their opinion about the intention to quit smoking, electronic cigarettes and their relative harm compared to the usual. Then they were in random order were shown four tweets. Thus, the researchers found out the view of the participants of the experiment on each post: how likely the answer or retavit and so on.
As a result, it turned out that even a small acquaintance with tweets, which emphasized the danger of electronic cigarettes, turned out to be enough to keep smokers from their use. It was also the opposite effect – reading posts, where electronic cigarettes were completely harmless, advocated participants to buy them and assume that they are less harmful compared to the usual.