Community water fluoridation online: an analysis of the digital media ecosystem

Helmi, Mohammad; Spinella, Mary Kate; Seymour, Brittany

doi:10.1111/jphd.12268

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Thus the current research adds to the growing literature examining the ideological antecedents of rejection of science (Hornsey & Fielding, 2017; Lewandowsky & Oberauer, 2016), situating these predictors within the larger theoretical framework of the Dual Process Model (Duckitt & Sibley, 2009). Our results also extend previous research by examining beliefs about community water fluoridation and evolution, two issues which are subject to continued public debate (Barnes et al, 2017; Helmi et al, 2018) and, in the case of water fluoridation, can have wide ranging impacts on public health (Armfield, 2007; Moore et al, 2017).…”

Section: Studysupporting

confidence: 83%

Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation predict rejection of science and scientists

Kerr

Wilson

2021

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations

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Previous research has highlighted how ideological factors such as political self-identification, religiosity and conspiracy thinking influence our beliefs about scientific issues such as climate change and vaccination. Across three studies (combined N = 9,022) we expand on this line of inquiry to show for the first time that the ideological attitudes relating to authoritarianism and group-based dominance predict disagreement with the scientific consensus in several scientific domains. We show these effects are almost entirely mediated by varying combinations of ideological (political ideology, religiosity, free-market endorsement, conspiracy thinking) and science-specific (scientific knowledge, trust in scientists) constructs, depending on the scientific issue in question. Importantly, a general distrust of science and scientists emerges as the most consistent mediator across different scientific domains. We find that, consistent with previous research, the ideological roots of rejection of science vary across scientific issues. However, we also show that these roots may share a common origin in ideological attitudes regarding authority and equality.

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Section: Studysupporting

confidence: 83%

Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation predict rejection of science and scientists

Kerr

Wilson

2021

Group Processes & Intergroup Relations

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“…Critics of fluoridation and vaccination have well established portals on the World Wide Web [e.g. Helmi, Spinella and Seymour, 2018]. The key here is that social media facilitate the expression of many voices.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Policing orthodoxy on Wikipedia: Skeptics in action?

Martin¹

2021

JCOM

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Wikipedia has been accused of being biased against challengers to scientific orthodoxy due to efforts by editors having affinities with the Skeptics movement. Examination of Wikipedia, including entries on fluoridation, the origin of AIDS and vaccination, reveals several characteristics typical of a Skeptics sensibility, including the definition of scepticism, lists of deviant ideas, derogatory labelling of heterodox viewpoints, and categories established without reference to reliable sources.

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“…The ubiquity of social media has created an opportunity for researchers to use these tools as sources of data on a range of topics, including on the spread of illnesses and attitudes to health-related topics [2-4]. A few studies have also used social media to examine public opinion on dental health, especially fluoridation [5,6]. However, prior research has suggested that social media may be used to spread distorted or false information and that such information may have important negative consequences, for instance, when dangerous information is spread about how to contain epidemics or when mental disorders are associated with negative emotions and unsupportive tweets [7,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in Emotional and Pain-Related Language in Tweets About Dentists and Medical Doctors: Text Analysis of Twitter Content

Johnsen

Eggesvik

Rørvik

et al. 2019

JMIR Public Health Surveill

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Background Social media provides people with easy ways to communicate their attitudes and feelings to a wide audience. Many people, unfortunately, have negative associations and feelings about dental treatment due to former painful experiences. Previous research indicates that there might be a pervasive and negative occupational stereotype related to dentists and that this stereotype is expressed in many different venues, including movies and literature. Objective This study investigates the language used in relation to dentists and medical doctors on the social media platform Twitter. The purpose is to compare the professions in terms of the use of emotional and pain-related words, which might underlie and reflect the pervasive negative stereotype identified in relation to dentists. We hypothesized that (A) tweets about dentists will have more negative emotion-related words than those about medical doctors and (B) pain-related words occur more frequently in tweets about dentists than in those about medical doctors. Methods Twitter content (“tweets”) about dentists and medical doctors was collected using the Twitter application program interface 140Dev over a 4-week period in 2015, scanning the search terms “dentist” and “doctor”. Word content of the selected tweets was analyzed using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software. The research hypotheses were investigated using nonparametric Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests. Results Over 2.3 million tweets were collected in total, of which about one-third contained the word “dentist” and about two-thirds contained the word “doctor.” Hypothesis A was supported since a higher proportion of negative words was used in tweets about dentists than in those about medical doctors ( z =−10.47; P <.001). Similarly, tests showed a difference in the proportions of anger words ( z =−12.54; P <.001), anxiety words (z=−6.96; P <.001), and sadness words ( z =−9.58; P <.001), with higher proportions of these words in tweets about dentists than in those about doctors. Also, Hypothesis B was supported since a higher proportion of pain-related words was used in tweets about dentists than in those about doctors ( z =−8.02; P <.001). Conclusions The results from this study suggest that stereotypes regarding dentists and dental treatment are spread through social media such as Twitter and that social media also might represent an avenue for improving messaging and disseminating more positive attitudes toward dentists and dental treatment.

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Community water fluoridation online: an analysis of the digital media ecosystem

Abstract: The dominant neutral sentiment of the network may signify that anti- and pro-sides of the debate are viewed as balanced, not just in number but also in quality of information. Despite high inlinks to pro-sources, anti-fluoridation sentiment maintains influence online.

Cited by 14 publications

References 28 publications

Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation predict rejection of science and scientists

Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation predict rejection of science and scientists

Policing orthodoxy on Wikipedia: Skeptics in action?

Differences in Emotional and Pain-Related Language in Tweets About Dentists and Medical Doctors: Text Analysis of Twitter Content

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