How do Online Comments Affect Perceived Descriptive Norms of E-Cigarette Use? The Role of Quasi-Statistical Sense, Valence Perceptions, and Exposure Dosage
Open accessAbstract
By facilitating user participatory features such as online comments, digital media expand the means through which individuals can get access to others’ behavior choices. This opens new research avenues in the pursuit of understanding how social influence operates in the virtual space. The current study examined whether anonymous others’ behavior choices within the online comment board may affect viewers’ descriptive norm perceptions in the real world. Results show that, given sufficient total exposure, viewers’ “quasi-statistical sense” allowed them to correctly identify the numerical majority through subtle individual behavior cues embedded in the online comments, which effectively influenced their estimation of the actual e-cigarette use prevalence among the U.S. population. Perceived behavior choice dominance and valence stance dominance toward e-cigarette use on the online comment board were found to mediate the relationship. Implications for the underlying mechanism of descriptive norm perception formation and future directions are discussed.
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Subjects frequently form perceptions of descriptive norms by inferring them from observing others, their comments, and the media, not only from direct summary information.
“Indeed, or other research found that subjects frequently form perceptions of descriptive norms by inferring these norms (often incorrectly) from simply observing others, their comments, and the media (for example, advertisements suggesting pervasiveness of smoking, or drinking; Borsari and Carey [2003]; Nan and Zhao [2016]; Liu and Shi [2019]).”
From Science Communication and the Problematic Impact of Descriptive Norms (2023) · cites this paper as Liu and Shi [2019]
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Science Communication and the Problematic Impact of Descriptive Norms
Peters, U. (2023) · The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science · doi:10.1086/715001 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
- Authors
- Liu, J., & Shi, R.
- Affiliations
- University of Georgia (US)
- Rowan University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Liu, Jiaying
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2018-12-17
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-20
- ISSN
- 1083-6101 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2913921873
- Cited by
- 43
- References
- 74
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 2.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model (vor)
- Locations
- Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Cancer Institute (P50CA179546)
- Center for Tobacco Products (P50 CA179546)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Media Influence and Health
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Marketing and Social Media
- Keywords
- online comments, descriptive norms, vaping, social influence
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