title: "Listen to your body": Participants' alternative to science in online health discussions.
abstract: We present a discursive psychological analysis of how the idiomatic expression "Listen to Your Body" is deployed in online forum discussions about ADHD medication and aspartame. The Listen to Your Body device allows participants to demonstrate to others that they take their health seriously and for that reason avoid scientific knowledge. They contrast Listen to Your Body with "blindly following science," presenting Listen to Your Body as the more critical and, therefore, more rational behavior. Instead of treating the idiomatic expression as "anyone's knowledge," speakers and recipients compete for the right to own it. It is discussed what these results mean for the role of and relation between experiential knowledge ("lay expertise") and scientific expertise in online discussions about health issues.
authors.affiliation: University of Twente, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wytske
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Versteeg
authors.affiliation: University of Twente, The Netherlands; Wageningen University & Research, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hedwig
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Te Molder
authors.affiliation: HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sneijder
mesh_terms: D001218:Aspartame / Q000009:adverse effects; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000628:therapy; D002755:Choice Behavior; D000529:Complementary Therapies; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D019359:Knowledge; D007802:Language; D061108:Social Media; D013549:Sweetening Agents / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D013549:Sweetening Agents; D001218:Aspartame
keywords: ADHD; aspartame; discursive psychology; experiential knowledge; online forums