Examining Homophily, Language Coordination, and Analytical Thinking in Web-Based Conversations About Vaccines on Reddit: Study Using Deep Neural Network Language Models and Computer-Assisted Conversational Analyses.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Vaccine hesitancy has been deemed one of the top 10 threats to global health. Antivaccine information on social media is a major barrier to addressing vaccine hesitancy. Understanding how vaccine proponents and opponents interact with each other on social media may help address vaccine hesitancy.

Objective

We aimed to examine conversations between vaccine proponents and opponents on Reddit to understand whether homophily in web-based conversations impedes opinion exchange, whether people are able to accommodate their languages to each other in web-based conversations, and whether engaging with opposing viewpoints stimulates higher levels of analytical thinking.

Methods

We analyzed large-scale conversational text data about human vaccines on Reddit from 2016

SUBMITTER: Li Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10131607 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature