Source Interactivity Enhances Sense of Community and Reduces Psychological Reactance: Effects of the Like Button on Smoking Message Evaluations and Attitudes

Abstract

This study investigates the psychological mechanism by which source interactivity influences health message evaluations. Combining health communication and interactivity literature, two theoretical routes to persuasion were proposed: enhanced sense of community and reduced psychological reactance. A 2 × 2 (source interactivity: absence vs. presence X smoking status: nonsmoker vs. current smoker) factorial-design experiment (N = 343) was conducted on an anti-smoking website. Result revealed that the endorsing and sharing features that resembled the Like button on Facebook enhanced self-as-source perceptions and sense of community, which exerted significant effects on message credibility for smokers and message enjoyment for nonsmokers. Among smokers, self-as-source perceptions reduced psychological reactance, which promoted greater message credibility and more negative attitudes toward smoking behavior.

Notes

1 Result from the smoker sample of this experiment has been recently published (Oh, Kang, Sudarshan, & Lee, 2020). The current study analyzes the entire dataset including both smokers and nonsmokers from the same experiment. None of the outcomes reported in this manuscript has been reported in the previous publication.

2 The study did not require participants to use the Like button on purpose, but the presence of the button was made very prominent in the study instruction and in the interface design of the stimulus website. Thus, those who did not click the like button but accessed at least one hyperlink on the website and spent enough amount of time were included in the analysis.

3 Higher values in attitudes toward smoking denote more positive attitudes toward smoking behavior such as smoking is harmless, indicating less persuasion.