Trial reportJournal of medical Internet research2013
An experimental test of the persuasive effect of source similarity in narrative and nonnarrative health blogs.
Trial report in Journal of medical Internet research, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- "Friending" teens: systematic review of social media in adolescent and young adult health care.Journal of medical Internet research · 2015Pooled it
- Automated indexing of Internet stories for health behavior change: weight loss attitude pilot study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2014Trial
- Optimizing Testimonials for Behavior Change in a Digital Intervention for Binge Eating: Human-Centered Design Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- A Content Analysis of Social Support Messages about Environmental Breast Cancer Risk within Blogs for Mothers.Health communication · 2021Article
- An Intervention to Promote Medication Understanding and Use Self-Efficacy: Design of Video Narratives for Aging Patients at Risk of Recurrent Stroke.JMIR aging · 2019Article
- Partnering With Mommy Bloggers to Disseminate Breast Cancer Risk Information: Social Media Intervention.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Article
- Development of an Evidence-Informed Blog to Promote Healthy Eating Among Mothers: Use of the Intervention Mapping Protocol.JMIR research protocols · 2017Article
- Increasing Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Through a Healthy Eating Blog: A Feasibility Study.JMIR research protocols · 2017Article
- Prose Fiction as a Narrative Companion for a Vegetable Parenting Videogame.Games for health journal · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundBlogs, or websites containing online personal journals, are a form of popular personal communication with immense potential for health promotion.
objectiveNarratives are stories with a beginning, middle, and end that provide information about the characters and plot. Source similarity refers to the degree to which the message source and each recipient are alike with respect to certain attributes. Narratives and source similarity have seldom been examined in tandem as strategies for health persuasion. Personal health blogs provide a suitable platform for such an investigation. This study examined the persuasive effects of message type and source similarity on participants' intentions to adopt a specific health behavior (running for exercise).
methodsA total of 150 participants were randomly assigned to conditions (n=25 per condition) in a completely crossed, 2 (message type: narrative and nonnarrative) × 3 (source similarity: no similarity, non-health-related similarity, and health-related similarity) between-subjects experiment. First, in an online questionnaire, participants provided personal information in 42 categories and rated the relatedness of each category to running and then completed pretest measures of the dependent variables. Based on their responses, 150 personal health blogs were created. Two weeks later, the initial participants read the blog created with their personal characteristics and completed a questionnaire online.
resultsThe source similarity effect was stronger in nonnarrative than narrative blogs. When the blogs were nonnarrative, those with health-related similarities were more persuasive than those with non-health-related similarities. Narrative blogs generated more positive thoughts and stronger blogger identification than nonnarrative blogs.
conclusionsHealth-related source similarity is key for persuasive health communication, especially when the messages are nonnarrative.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.