Although there is an increasing amount of research on support-seeking in cyberspace, very little is known about what features of online support-seeking can enhance the quality of received support. The present experiment examined how support-seekers’ use of cues to personal identity in their user profile can influence the level of person-centeredness and politeness in others’ responses to their support-seeking postings. Results showed that support-seekers whose user profile contained a portrait picture and a first name ID tended to receive higher person-centered and more polite support messages than support-seekers whose user profile did not contain those cues to personal identity.

Health consumers are increasingly turning to physician review websites to research potential health care providers. This experiment examined how the proportion and position of negative reviews on such websites influence readers' willingness to choose the reviewed physician. A 5 × 2 (Proportion of Negative Reviews × Position of Negative Reviews) factorial design was implemented, augmented with two standalone comparison groups. Five hundred participants were recruited through a crowdsource website and were randomly assigned to read a webpage screenshot corresponding to 1 of 12 experimental conditions. The participants then completed a questionnaire that assessed evaluations of and cognitive elaborations (thoughts) about the physician. The authors hypothesized that readers would be less willing to use a physician's services when reviews were predominantly negative and negative comments were positioned before positive comments. As hypothesized, an increase in the proportion of negative reviews led to a reduced willingness to use the physician's services. However, this effect was not moderated by the level of cognitive elaboration. A primacy effect was found for negative reviews such that readers were less willing to use the physician's services when negative reviews were presented before positive reviews, rather than after. Implications for future research are discussed.

The current study examined the effect of exposure to online support-seeking posts containing different levels of depth self-disclosure (baseline, peripheral, core) affecting the quality (person-centeredness and politeness) of participants' support-provision messages. Participants of the study were assigned to the role of a support-provider. Compared to participants who read support-seeking posts with baseline and core self-disclosure, participants who read support-seeking posts with peripheral self-disclosure rated the support-seekers as less anonymous. Compared to participants who read support-seeking posts in the baseline condition, participants who read the support-seeking posts with peripheral self-disclosure wrote support-provision messages with higher level of person-centeredness and politeness. Participants' perceived anonymity of the support-seekers mediated the effect of the depth of self-disclosure on the politeness of the response messages.

Research on online support has largely overlooked the role of self-disclosure in support provision. By manipulating the level of social context cues in a support-seeker’s online profile, this study examined how social context cues affected a support-provider’s self-disclosure in an online support forum. Results of the experiment supported the “social context cues—perceived social presence—trust—self-disclosure” model with regard to descriptive self-disclosure but not with regard to evaluative self-disclosure.

BACKGROUND: This study examined national similarities and differences in peoples engagement in health preventive behaviors during a public health crisis, as well as investigated the underlying individual-level psychological mechanisms. A conceptual distinction was made between self-focused and other-involved preventive behaviors in response to public health crises. METHOD: Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted in the United States (N = 888) and China (N = 844) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hayes PROCESS was utilized to assess national differences in seven preventive behaviors, along with the mediating effects of self-construal and health locus of control. RESULTS: The results showed that American participants reported greater engagement in self-focused preventive behaviors than Chinese, whereas Chinese participants reported greater engagement in other-involved preventive behaviors than Americans. Chinese participants also engaged more in other-involved than self-focused preventive behaviors. Self-construal and health locus of control partially explained the observed differences in engagement in preventive behaviors. DISCUSSION: This study introduces a culture-sensitive approach to provide insights for crafting communication interventions that can enhance the effectiveness of health campaigns in the context of a public health crisis.