Health Communication最新文献

This study examines the use of deepfakes in self-disclosure interventions within mental health contexts. Specifically, we investigate how videos featuring self-deepfakes, celebrity deepfakes, and virtual agents disclosing mental health challenges shape affective resistance and intention to seek support, considering the moderating influence of individual baseline mental health. The findings indicate that self-deepfakes elicited greater affective resistance than celebrity deepfakes, leading to reduced help-seeking intention, whereas no significant differences were observed between self-deepfakes and virtual agent disclosures. Also, the moderation analysis showed that participants with lower baseline mental health were especially prone to heightened affective resistance toward self-disclosure videos featuring deepfake representations of themselves. Our findings indicate that artificial intelligence (AI)-generated self-deepfakes, which personalize content without affording users agency, may reverse the conventional self-referencing effect, provoking affective resistance rooted in identity threat. Since these counterproductive effects are most salient among individuals with negative self-schemas who struggle with greater mental health challenges, AI-driven technologies should be applied in health communication with caution, accompanied by tailored strategies designed to curb impulsive, emotion-driven resistance.

This study explores how far a variety of choices in the visualization of help givers in first aid instruction materials can be associated the perception of these help givers in viewers. We present a reception study, in which we analyze 40 images from a first aid corpus by focusing on variations in their image type, perspective, camera angle, shot size, color, facial expression visibility, and gender. A total of 107 participants evaluated these images using 20 pairs of trait adjectives on a 6-point scale. Results indicate that drawings had a slightly higher positive composite score than photographs. Bird's-eye perspectives, front-facing camera angles, and full-body shots all yielded a higher positive composite score, which suggests a preference for visual cues related to directness and completeness. Color images were favored over grayscale. Interestingly, images with obscured facial expressions were rated higher, potentially due to reduced emotional cues allowing for individual interpretation. Images portraying female help givers consistently received higher positive scores than male help givers. These findings show the relation between visual design and the perceived positive characteristics of help givers. The insights can be useful in the process of optimizing first aid material design.

Emotional reactions to health information significantly influence health decisions. The theory of persuasive hope details how messages can influence behaviors and intentions by evoking hope. Messaging about noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) has begun to include hope-focused appeals, and scholars have recommended using hope appeals in messaging about genetic testing. The current study extends the theory of persuasive hope by testing if critical reflection, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers serve as mechanisms of hope's effect on NIPT intentions. Women who were planning to or considering becoming pregnant (N = 744) participated in a message experiment where they received an informational message about NIPT that either included or did not include a hope-focused narrative. The narrative had a positive indirect effect on NIPT intention via hope. Hope influenced intention through greater perceived benefits and lower perceived personal and ethical barriers. Findings further hope theorizing by identifying mechanisms through which hope persuades. Practically, health messaging could gain from using hope-focused narratives to emphasize the benefits and minimize the barriers to engaging in a recommended health behavior. Findings also highlight the ethical ramifications of hope messaging. Hope diminished ethical concerns about NIPT even though messaging did not discuss the ethics of NIPT.

By analyzing two narratives of encounters between family caregivers from minority ethnocultural groups and healthcare professionals, this paper explores the communicative and collaborative challenges involved in integrating diverse forms of caregiving expertise in healthcare, particularly in contexts where task-based medical expertise is prioritized over relational, experiential expertise. We then illustrate how a dialogic approach to caregiving partnership can support both healthcare workers and family caregivers, especially those from minority backgrounds, in building quality relationships and co-constructing a hybrid caregiving expertise that merges task-oriented and relationship-centered knowledge. For such partnerships to emerge, interactional partners must strengthen their relational collaboration skills by demonstrating respect, cultural humility, compassion, and trust. This kind of relational work provides the impetus for moving beyond fragmented care and creating more culturally appropriate care trajectories.

Guided by the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model, this study explores how conflicting information shapes individuals' relevant channel beliefs and trust in scientists, as well as how these two factors interact with perceived information gathering capacity to predict information seeking intention. The research context is per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination, a novel environmental health risk. A one-way between-subjects experiment with 1,232 adult participants from the United States was conducted. Results indicated that exposure to conflicting information weakened relevant channel beliefs and trust in scientists. Through relevant channel beliefs, conflicting information was negatively associated with information seeking intention. Participants with the highest levels of relevant channel beliefs and perceived information gathering capacity exhibited greatest information seeking intention. These findings highlight the importance of providing consistent and credible information to the public to promote information seeking about a novel risk.

Survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) have heightened cancer risks and are less likely to be up to date with cervical cancer screenings (CCS) and breast cancer screenings (BCS). Trauma-informed clinical practices are well positioned to make CCS and BCS more accessible to GBV survivors, but survivors' hesitance to disclose trauma history to health care providers often prevents effective delivery of trauma-informed care. The current study analyzed qualitative interview and survey data from GBV survivors (N = 110) to learn more about barriers to and facilitators of CCS and BCS, as well as to disclosing trauma history to health care providers. Guided by uncertainty reduction theory, this study also explores survivors' feelings of uncertainty regarding screening procedures and conversations about trauma history with health care providers. Recommendations for health programming to promote CCS and BCS among GBV survivors are discussed.

In an increasingly saturated news environment, individuals often encounter information through incidental news exposure (INE). Drawing upon a refined cognitive mediation model, this study employs a two-wave panel survey to examine the relationship between social media INE and factual knowledge about COVID-19. While INE was not directly associated with factual knowledge, it demonstrated a positive indirect association with it through cognitive elaboration. This mediated relationship was further moderated by users' engagement with digital affordances: greater use of social media affordances strengthened the indirect pathway from INE to knowledge. These findings illuminate the complex interplay among digital affordances, incidental exposure, and cognitive processing in shaping health learning.

People experience, engage, and interact with their living world not as disembodied minds, but as embodied beings and motivated actors. The fifteen contributions gathered in this special issue collectively mirror the essential terrain of embodied health experiences in the Chinese context. The collective findings move the field beyond merely describing cultural differences to demanding a fundamental re-theorization of core communication concepts and the adoption of new interdisciplinary methodologies.

Grounded in social learning theory, this study investigates the impact of social media influencers (SMIs) on the mental well-being of college students through YouTube videos. By analyzing 115 videos from 88 influencers with over 5,000 subscribers, this study identifies distinct communication strategies tied to influencer attributes. Notably, findings reveal that strategies such as cultivating affective social presence, showing identification with friends and mental health organizations, and incorporating narrative evidence, are positively linked to increased user commenting behavior. The study also examines variations in strategy use across gender and influencer tiers, with micro-influencers excelling in employing most of these effective strategies. Emphasizing the pivotal role of SMIs, as observational learning role models, this research sheds light on their influence in fostering supportive online communities that encourage open dialogue and reflective learning on mental health. The implications can extend to the field of digital health communications.