title: Content characteristics driving the diffusion of antismoking messages: implications for cancer prevention in the emerging public communication environment.
abstract: This study examined how content characteristics of antitobacco messages affect smokers' selective exposure to and social sharing of those messages. Results from an experiment revealed that content features predicting smokers' selection of antismoking messages are different from those predicting whether those messages are shared. Antismoking messages smokers tend to select are characterized by strong arguments (odds ratio = 2.02, P = .02) and positive sentiments (odds ratio = 3.08, P = .03). Once selected, the messages more likely to be retransmitted by smokers were those with novel arguments (B = .83, P = .002) and positive sentiments (B = 1.65, P = .005). This research adds to the literature about the content characteristics driving the social diffusion of antitobacco messages and contributes to our understanding of the role of persuasive messages about smoking cessation in the emerging public communication environment.
authors.affiliation: BA, Moores Cancer Center, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr MC 0901, La Jolla, CA 92093. lejames@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Hyun Suk
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sungkyoung
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Joseph N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Cappella
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Vera
authors.forename: Sherry
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Emery
mesh_terms: D015438:Health Behavior; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D061108:Social Media