Digital Issue Movements: Political Repertoires and Drivers of Participation among Belgian Youth in the Context of ‘School Strike for Climate’

It often remains unclear how young citizens are combining various forms of political participation, as well as why they choose some over others, especially within a single-issue movement. Moreover, little is known about how social networking sites (SNS) fit into the political repertoires of citizens. Therefore, this study explores youths’ political participation patterns in the context of the 2019 youth-led climate strikes. We rely on data from a paper and pencil survey among 498 high school students in Belgium. To identify different types of activists, the study used latent class analysis (LCA). In addition, a multinomial logistic regression was conducted to assess how identified participation types differ from each other. Four different participation repertoires regarding the climate issue were identified, each distinctive in the way they rely on different forms of political participation. In addition, membership to each of the different classes is associated with a unique set of characteristics (in terms of political efficacies, climate issue involvement, and online expression motives). The article shows how SNS make up a crucial part of youths’ issue-specific participation patterns and sheds light on the mechanisms underlying their participation choices within the climate movement.

Reducing misperceptions through news stories with data visualization: The role of readers’ prior knowledge and prior beliefs

Amid the global discussion on ways to fight misinformation, journalists have been writing stories with graphical representations of data to expose misperceptions and provide readers with more accurate information. Employing an experimental design, this study explored to what extent news stories correcting misperceptions are effective in reducing them when the stories include data visualization and how influential readers’ prior beliefs, issue involvement and prior knowledge may be in that context. The study found that the presence of data visualization in news articles correcting misperceptions significantly enhanced the reduction of misperceptions among news readers with less than average prior knowledge about an issue. In addition, it was found that prior beliefs had a significant effect on news readers’ misperceptions regardless of the presence or absence of data visualization. In this way, this research offers some support for the notion that data visualization may be useful to decrease misperceptions under certain circumstances.

Factors Affecting the Extent of Patients’ EMR Use: An Empirical Study Focusing on System and Patient Characteristics (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Patients’ access to and use of electronic medical records (EMRs) places greater information in their hands, which helps them better co-manage their health, leading to better clinical outcomes. Despite numerous benefits that promote health and well-being, patients’ acceptance and use of EMRs remains low. OBJECTIVE This study aims to examine the critical system and patient characteristics that influence the extent of patients’ EMR use. METHODS We employed the patient technology acceptance model as a starting point and included new constructs specific to patient characteristics, such as chronic conditions, preventive health behavior, and issue involvement. To test our hypotheses, we used structural equation modeling. RESULTS The statistically significant drivers of the extent of EMR use were performance expectancy (β = 0.253; P < .000), perceived behavior control (β = 0.236; P < .000), health knowledge (β = -0.071; P < .01), caregiving status (β = 0.059; P < .05), issue involvement (β = 0.356; P < .000), chronic conditions (β = 0.071; P < .05), and preventive health behavior (β = 0.076; P < .01). The model accounted for 32.9% of the variance in the extent of EMR use. CONCLUSIONS The study found that health characteristics, such as chronic conditions and patient disposition (e.g., preventive health behavior and issue involvement), directly affect the extent of EMR use. The study also revealed that issue involvement mediates the impacts of preventive health behaviors and the presence of chronic conditions on the extent of patients’ EMR use.

News gap in a digital news environment: Calibrating editorial importance from user-rated news quality and identifying user characteristics that close the news gap

While previous studies have found a clear gap between users’ news preferences and editors’ news choices, whether a similar user–editor gap exists when it comes to news quality evaluations remains an open question. We therefore conducted a nation-wide survey of 7810 South Korean users, collected online social indicators from a digital news platform, and asked users and editors to evaluate the quality of 1500 news articles and rank-order these articles’ editorial importance, respectively. Even after controlling for users’ news preferences and news genres, we found that users distinguished news articles quality in a manner comparable to that of editors. Our analysis also showed that users with higher issue involvement, issue knowledge, or ideological strength tended to rate news quality similar to editors. Moreover, we found that ideological strength served as an alternative cognitive schema for issue knowledge for individuals who lacked sufficient knowledge to assess news quality.

Preventive Behavioral Insights for Emerging Adults: A Survey during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Emerging adulthood is an important period for establishing health behavior patterns in life. This study aimed to examine factors related to preventive behaviors of emerging adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. A descriptive online survey design was used. Data were collected using a self-administrated, 28-item questionnaire completed by 239 undergraduate students from a university in Seoul, South Korea. The questionnaire was developed based on previous studies and the guidelines of the World Health Organization about COVID-19 preventive behaviors. The mean age of participants was 21.97 years, and the average score for COVID-19 preventive behaviors was 4.13 (SD: ±0.42) on a 5-point scale. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that subjective norms related to parents (β = 0.425, p < 0.001), issue involvement related to COVID-19 (β = 0.160, p = 0.024), and sex (β = 0.137, p = 0.029) were significant factors related to preventive behaviors of emerging adults after controlling for demographic characteristics. The variables explained 20.1% of the variance in preventive behaviors. The results of this study suggest that better strategies for subjective norms related to parents and issue involvement related to COVID-19 must be considered to improve emerging adults’ preventive behaviors.

Virtual Reality and Political Outgroup Contact: Can Avatar Customization and Common Ingroup Identity Reduce Social Distance?

This study ( N = 217) explores the potential for virtual reality to decrease social distance toward outgroup members among women. Raising the salience of individuals’ real physical identity through avatar customization and common ingroup identity manipulations was theorized to influence social distance. Participants who customized an avatar to resemble their real selves showed increased social distance. However, avatar customization also increased user identifiability, which was linked to reduced social distance. Priming a common ingroup identity increased identity salience but did not influence social distance. In examining heterogeneous effects by prior levels of issue involvement, participants with high and moderate involvement with immigration showed increased social distance after customizing an avatar to resemble their real selves, thus implying boomerang effects. The study discusses how avatar customization, identifiability, and common ingroup primes in virtual encounters may influence outgroup attitudes and intergroup relations.

Synergy effects of entertainment and information programs about organ donation on issue involvement and altruistic responses

This study examines synergy effects of entertainment and information programs on the example of a television theme night about organ donation. Participants watched either a feature film about organ donation or an unrelated entertainment program. Subsequently, all participants watched an information program about organ donation. Those who had first seen the feature film reported higher levels of issue involvement (topic interest, subjective knowledge, and information seeking), and altruistic responses (positive attitudes and behavioral intentions concerning organ donation and willingness to get a donor card). Structural equation modeling revealed that the positive effects of the feature film on issue involvement and altruistic responses varied by the extent to which participants felt moved by the feature film and by their level of cognitive elaboration about the feature film and the documentary on organ donation.