Primary Investigator:
Skyler J. Cranmer, Ph.D
College of Arts and Sciences- Political Science
Steam Collaborator:
David Sivokoff, Ph.D-Assitant Professor
College of Arts and Sciences- Statistics
Goals:
- Conduct a mobile lab-based experiment to understand how individuals consume, process, and share information related to disease.
- Understanding how social networks influence the flow of information and how official communications from public health entities compete with socially transmitted beliefs.
Summary:
This project will study participants’ knowledge about Hepatitis C/Ebola/ HIV: its symptoms, how it spreads, the health consequences of contracting it, and what can be done to stop its further spread. The experiment will be conducted in a mobile lab in such a way that participants will be placed in a social network during the experiment, asking them to communicate their beliefs to one another during the experiment. The project aims to test the hypothesis that beliefs about Hepatitis C/Ebola/HIV are socially influenced by the beliefs of others to whom the participant is connected through their social network.
Participants will be recruited from a variety of existing small groups, ranging from on-campus teams and clubs at OSU to community groups that may be at particularly high risk of contracting one of the diseases under study. Thus, team members will know each other in the real world and enter the study with real social networks. For a group entering the study, its members will be surveyed about (a) their personal characteristics and (b) their social network within the group to dramatically increase the level of realism involved.
Notable Achievements:
Intended Results- This will help public health organizations understand how much information is needed to stop the spread of misinformation about diseases and foster spread of accurate information.