Processing the Scientific Tentativeness of Medical Research: An Experimental Study on the Effects of Research News and User Comments in Online Media

摘要

When people read medical research news on the Internet, they are confronted not only with information from the article itself but often also with comments written by other users about the article. Moreover, Internet users have the opportunity to write their own comments. In an experimental study we found that the actual scientific tentativeness of the research findings reported in a health news article as well as the empirical and the anecdotal evidence provided in other users' skeptical comments influenced how the participants perceived scientific tentativeness and, in turn, how much they addressed this tentativeness in their own comments.