The Effects of Twitter Users’ Gender and Weight on Viral Behavioral Intentions Toward Obesity-Related News |
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| Authors: | Nasser Almutairi Saleem Alhabash Lea Hellmueller Erin Willis |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Advertising + Public Relations, Michigan State University, College of Communication Arts &2. Sciences, East Lansing, Michigan, USA;3. Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA;4. College of Media, Communication, and Information, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA |
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| Abstract: | In this study, male and female participants were exposed to identical news stories covering obesity topics paired with tweets from Twitter users. Our study aimed at understanding how obesity-related news combined with user-generated social media posts (i.e., tweets) affect consumers’ evaluations of online content and viral behavioral intentions (the intentions to like, share, and comment). An experiment (N = 316) explored how gender and weight of a Twitter user (tweeter) affect participants’ evaluations and viral behavioral intentions toward news stories. Participants differed in their evaluations of and viral behavioral intentions for news stories as a function of Twitter users’ gender and weight, as well as participants’ gender. While participants expressed more favorable attitudes toward news stories paired with tweets by overweight than healthy females (with the opposite true for tweets by male users), participants expressed greater viral behavioral intentions for news stories paired with tweets by healthy weight than overweight user. These effects were more pronounced among male than female participants. Findings are discussed within the context of social media posts and their persuasive effects in relation to attitude and behavior changes. |
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