Effects of Prior Exposure to Conflicting Health Information on Responses to Subsequent Unrelated Health Messages: Results from a Population-Based Longitudinal Experiment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Accumulating evidence suggests that exposure to conflicting health information can adversely affect public understanding of and trust in health recommendations. What is not known is whether prior exposure to such information renders people less receptive to subsequent unrelated health messages about behaviors for which the evidence is clear and consistent.

Purpose

This study tests this "carryover" effects hypothesis, positing that prior exposure to conflict will reduce receptivity to subsequent unrelated health messages, and examines potential affective and cognitive pathways through which such effects might occur.

Methods

A three-wave, online, population-based survey experiment (N = 2,716) assessed whether participants who were randomly assigned to view a

SUBMITTER: Nagler RH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9116588 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature