title: The influence of crowds on consumer health decisions: an online prospective study.
abstract: This paper presents an online prospective study investigating whether the strength of social feedback, i.e. the proportion of persons who concur or do not concur with one's own answer to a question, influences the way one answers health-related questions. Two hundred and twenty-seven undergraduate students were recruited to use an online search engine to answer six health-related questions. Subjects recorded their pre- and post-search answers to each question and their level of confidence in these answers. After answering each question post-search, subjects were presented with a summary of post-search answers provided by previous subjects and were asked to answer the question again. There was a statistically significant relationship between the absolute number of others with a different answer (the crowd's opinion volume) and the likelihood of an individual changing an answer (P<.0001). Subjects' likelihood of changing answer increased as the percentage of others with a different answer (the crowd's opinion density) increased (P=0.047). Overall, 98.3% of subjects did not change their answer when it concurred with the majority (i.e. >50%) of subjects. When subjects had a post-search answer that did not concur with the majority, they were 24% more likely to change answer than those with answers that concurred (P<.0001). This study provides empirical evidence that strength of social feedback influences the way healthcare consumers answer health-related questions.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Informatics, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. a.lau@unsw.edu.au
authors.forename: Annie Y S
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: Trevor M Y
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Kwok
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Coiera
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003441:Crowding; D003657:Decision Making; D015438:Health Behavior; D006266:Health Education / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D009517:New South Wales / Q000453:epidemiology; D009862:Online Systems; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011639:Public Opinion; D012922:Social Change; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data