scholarly journals Socioeconomic Correlates of Anti-Science Attitudes in the US

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 160
Author(s):  
Minda Hu ◽  
Ashwin Rao ◽  
Mayank Kejriwal ◽  
Kristina Lerman
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Science Attitudes ◽  
Vaccination Rates ◽  
Spatially Resolved ◽  
Political Partisanship ◽  
The Us ◽  
Urban Places

Successful responses to societal challenges require sustained behavioral change. However, as responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the US showed, political partisanship and mistrust of science can reduce public willingness to adopt recommended behaviors such as wearing a mask or receiving a vaccination. To better understand this phenomenon, we explored attitudes toward science using social media posts (tweets) that were linked to counties in the US through their locations. The data allowed us to study how attitudes towards science relate to the socioeconomic characteristics of communities in places from which people tweet. Our analysis revealed three types of communities with distinct behaviors: those in large metro centers, smaller urban places, and rural areas. While partisanship and race are strongly associated with the share of anti-science users across all communities, income was negatively and positively associated with anti-science attitudes in suburban and rural areas, respectively. We observed that emotions in tweets, specifically negative high arousal emotions, are expressed among suburban and rural communities by many anti-science users, but not in communities in large urban places. These trends were not apparent when pooled across all counties. In addition, we found that anti-science attitudes expressed five years earlier were significantly associated with lower COVID-19 vaccination rates. Our analysis demonstrates the feasibility of using spatially resolved social media data to monitor public attitudes on issues of social importance.

scholarly journals Political Partisanship and Anti-Science Attitudes in Online Discussions about COVID-19 (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashwin Rao ◽  
Fred Morstatter ◽  
Minda Hu ◽  
Emily Chen ◽  
Keith Burghardt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Science Attitudes ◽  
Large Set ◽  
Political Partisanship ◽  
The Us ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

BACKGROUND The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage communities across the US. Opinion surveys identified importance of political ideology in shaping perceptions of the pandemic and compliance with preventive measures. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to measure political partisanship and anti-science attitudes in the discussions about the pandemic on social media, as well as their geographic and temporal distribution. METHODS We analyze a large set of tweets related to the pandemic collected between January and May of 2020 and develop methods to classify the ideological alignment of users along the moderacy (hardline vs moderate), political (liberal vs conservative) and science (anti-science vs pro-science) dimensions. RESULTS We find that polarization along the science and political dimensions are correlated. Moreover, politically moderate users are more aligned with the pro-science views, while hardline users are more aligned with anti-science views. Contrary to expectations, we do not find that polarization grows over time; instead, we see increasing activity by moderate pro-science users. We also show that anti-science conservatives tend to tweet from the Southern and Northwestern US, while anti-science moderates from the Western states. The proportion of anti-science conservatives are found to correlate with COVID-19 cases. CONCLUSIONS Our findings shed light on the multi-dimensional nature of polarization, and the feasibility of tracking polarized opinions about the pandemic across time and space through social media data.

Social Response to the FDA Authorization of Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs)

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
Jungmi Jun
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Tobacco Industry ◽  
Semantic Networks ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Tobacco Products ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Impact

Objectives: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sales of heated tobacco products (HTPs) on April 30, 2019. In this paper, I provide a preliminary analysis of social media conversations regarding HTPs and the FDA authorization in the first 60 days. Methods: I examined 574 tweets regarding HTPs to assess tweet characteristics and semantic networks of HTPs. Results: Tweets were more likely to be neutral or anti-HTPs than pro-HTPs regardless of the author type (except for tobacco industry) or genre of the post. There was a small gap (6.4%) between the proportion of pro-HTPs and anti-HTPs among personal tweets. The proportion of pro-HTPs was larger in tweets posted by men (vs women and no sex specified) and from rural areas (vs urban). Nearly one-third of the sample mentioned cigarettes or e-cigarettes, even though the size of posts making claims on inferiority/superiority of HTPs was small. Conclusions: Social media conversations on risks of HTPs as well as surveillance on young consumer target marketing is occurring, and it will be important to assess the impact of tobacco companies' launch of HTP sales in the US to assess public perceptions on HTPs. Continuing surveillance of HTP marketing and risk perceptions will inform tobacco regulations.

scholarly journals How Social Media Can Foster Social Innovation in Disadvantaged Rural Communities

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2697 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenichiro Onitsuka
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Remote Communication ◽  
Agricultural Communities ◽  
Rural Sustainability ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Social innovation has received widespread attention in the rural development field, especially its contribution to future rural sustainability. Social innovation revolves around social networks. Rural areas, however, can be relatively disadvantaged by their geographical peripherality. Social media, therefore, has strong potential to foster social innovation by enabling remote communication, but in rural areas, social media use may be low because of an aging and decreasing population. This study examined community-level adoption and use of social media in rural areas in Japan, with a focus on Facebook, for the purpose of sharing community information and facilitating networking with a variety of actors to promote rural social innovation. The study involved a comprehensive search and case studies targeting 139,063 rural communities and 10,922 rural joint-communities, all of which are legally designated agricultural communities throughout Japan. The search found that disadvantaged rural communities’ adoption of Facebook was scarce, and most of the communities that had adopted Facebook did not expand their social networks. Furthermore, investigation into the communities that had adopted social networking to a larger extent revealed that external supporters or migrants had essential roles in successful networking. Based on the obtained findings, this study has provided insights for future policy design.

scholarly journals Artificial intelligence-enabled analysis of UK and US public attitudes on Twitter and Facebook towards COVID-19 vaccination (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Hussain ◽  
Ahsen Tahir ◽  
Zain Hussain ◽  
Zakariya Sheikh ◽  
Kia Dashtipour ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Public Attitude ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Uk

UNSTRUCTURED Background: Global efforts towards the development and deployment of a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 are rapidly advancing. We developed and applied an artificial-intelligence (AI)-based approach to analyse social-media public sentiment in the UK and the US towards COVID-19 vaccinations, to understand public attitude and identify topics of concern. Methods: Over 300,000 social-media posts related to COVID-19 vaccinations were extracted, including 23,571 Facebook-posts from the UK and 144,864 from the US, along with 40,268 tweets from the UK and 98,385 from the US respectively, from 1st March - 22nd November 2020. We used natural-language processing and deep learning-based techniques to predict average sentiments, sentiment trends and topics of discussion. These were analysed longitudinally and geo-spatially, and a manual- eading of randomly selected posts around points of interest helped identify underlying themes and validated insights from the analysis. Results: We found overall averaged positive, negative and neutral sentiment in the UK to be 58%, 22% and 17%, compared to 56%, 24% and 18% in the US, respectively. Public optimism over vaccine development, effectiveness and trials as well as concerns over safety, economic viability and corporation control were identified. We compared our findings to national surveys in both countries and found them to correlate broadly. Conclusions: AI-enabled social-media analysis should be considered for adoption by institutions and governments, alongside surveys and other conventional methods of assessing public attitude. This could enable real-time assessment, at scale, of public confidence and trust in COVID-19 vaccinations, help address concerns of vaccine-sceptics and develop more effective policies and communication strategies to maximise uptake.

Variance in disease risk: rural populations and genetic diversity

Genome ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (7) ◽  
pp. 519-525 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.D. Jenkins ◽  
A.E. Lipka ◽  
A.J. Fogleman ◽  
K.R. Delfino ◽  
R.S. Malhi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Genomic Variation ◽  
Genomic Diversity ◽  
Disease Epidemiology ◽  
Industrialized Nations ◽  
The Us ◽  
Significant Disease

Over 19% of the US population resides in rural areas, where studies of disease risk and disease outcomes are difficult to assess due to smaller populations and lower incidence. While some studies suggest rural disparities for different chronic diseases, the data are inconsistent across geography and definitions of rurality. We reviewed the literature to examine if local variations in population genomic diversity may plausibly explain inconsistencies in estimating disease risk. Many rural communities were founded over 150 years ago by small groups of ethnically and ancestrally similar families. These have since endured relative geographical isolation, similar to groups in other industrialized nations, perhaps resulting in founder effects impacting local disease susceptibility. Studies in Europe and Asia have found that observably different phenotypes may appear in isolated communities within 100 years, and that genomic variation can significantly vary over small geographical scales. Epidemiological studies utilizing common “rural” definitions may miss significant disease differences due to assumptions of risk homogeneity and misinterpretation of administrative definitions of rurality. Local genomic heterogeneity should be an important aspect of chronic disease epidemiology in rural areas, and it is important to consider for designing studies and interpreting results, enabling a better understanding of the heritable components of complex diseases.

scholarly journals Cultural Influence On The Diffusion And Adoption Of Social Media Technologies By Entrepreneurs In Rural South Africa

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Mpele Lekhanya
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Entrepreneurial Spirit ◽  
Rural Businesses ◽  
Factors Influencing

This paper examines how culture influences the diffusion and adoption of social media technologies in rural businesses. The cultural factors influencing the diffusion and adoption of social media technologies among the rural communities in South Africa are still not clear. The study aimed to determine cultural factors influencing diffusion and adoption of social media technologies by rural businesses in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). Data was collected from five rural areas in KZN. The sample consisted of 175 business owners/managers, selected using quota sampling, with respondents completing a questionnaire with the assistance of an interviewer. A mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative techniques was used. Results of the survey reveal that the majority of respondents indicate that they do consider their cultural values as most important when diffusing and adopting new social media technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, and MXit. Further research should aim to develop training programmes that will provide community entrepreneurial skills and encourage an entrepreneurial spirit and use of new social media technologies among rural dwellers particularly in KZN.

scholarly journals Can Age-Friendly Planning Promote Equity in Community Health Across the Rural-Urban Divide in the US?

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 1275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue Zhang ◽  
Mildred E. Warner ◽  
Elaine Wethington
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
World Health ◽  
Poor Whites ◽  
The Us ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
Neighborhood Built Environment ◽  
Socio Economic Factors

In the US, rural communities face challenges to meet the community health needs of older adults and children. Meanwhile, rural areas lag in age-friendly built environment and services. AARP, a US based organization promoting livability for all ages, has developed a Livability Index based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) domains of age-friendly communities: health, housing, neighborhood, transportation, environment, engagement, and opportunity. This study links the 2018 AARP Livability Index categories with demographic structure and socio-economic factors from the American Community Survey at the county level in the US to examine if the physical, built and social environment differentiate communities with better community health across the rural–urban divide. Results show that the neighborhood built environment has the largest impact on community health for all county types. Although rural areas lag in community health, those which give more attention to engagement and opportunity rank higher. Rural communities with more African Americans, children, and poor Whites, rank lower on community health. While neighborhood characteristics have the strongest link to community health, a broader approach with attention to age, race, poverty and engagement and opportunity is needed for rural areas.

scholarly journals The COVID States Project #57: Social media news consumption and COVID-19 vaccination rates

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lazer ◽  
Jon Green ◽  
Katherine Ognyanova ◽  
Matthew Baum ◽  
Jennifer Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
White House ◽  
Vaccination Rates ◽  
Surgeon General ◽  
The People ◽  
The Us ◽  
Public Health Threat ◽  
Risk Of Exposure ◽  
Large Survey

Earlier this month, we witnessed a vigorous back and forth between the White House and Facebook regarding the role of the company in circulating health misinformation. On the White House side, the Surgeon General released an Advisory declaring misinformation a public health threat to the nation, highlighting, in part, the role of social media. This was followed the next day by a pointed statement by President Biden-- “They’re killing us!” Facebook responded with a blog entry, Moving Past the Finger Pointing, asserting that it was not responsible for the plateauing vaccination rates in the US. The company pointed to the fact that 85% of Facebook users in a large survey by Carnegie Mellon (supported by Facebook) reported being vaccinated or wanting to be vaccinated. This exchange begs an obvious question: who has it right? Answering this question is tricky; but at minimum, rebutting the President’s accusation would require more information than is provided in Facebook’s blog post. For one thing, it fails to compare Facebook users to non-users. It also does not provide information on vaccination rates among those Facebook users who actually get information regarding COVID-19 from Facebook. As most Americans use Facebook, the vaccination rates among users will inevitably be similar to those of the general population. But only a subset of those users go to Facebook specifically to get news and information about COVID-19. These are the people who the Biden administration worries are at risk of exposure to vaccine misinformation.

scholarly journals Traditional Cigarette and Poly-Tobacco Use Are Associated with Medical Opioid Use in Rural Areas of the US

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (22) ◽  
pp. 11864
Author(s):  
Mariaelena Gonzalez ◽  
Ashley Sanders-Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Tobacco Use ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Tobacco Product ◽  
Structural Level ◽  
Opioid Use ◽  
The Us ◽  
Interview Survey

Introduction: Medical prescriptions for opioids are higher in rural areas of the US as compared to urban areas. Tobacco use may also play a role in this process. This analysis examines the association between differing types of tobacco use and medical opioid use. Methods: We analyze the relationship between tobacco product use and medical opioid use among the US general population living in rural (non-metropolitan) areas using the publicly available sample adult file 2019 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) (n = 5028). Tobacco use was classified into the following categories: only using cigarettes, only using e-cigarettes/vapes, only using cigars, only using smokeless tobacco, or using two or more of the following products. We used a binary logistic regression, controlling for individual differences. Results: Individuals who reported using only traditional cigarettes (and no other tobacco product, OR = 1.62, 95% CI: 1.31, 2.01), or who reported being a poly-tobacco users (OR = 2.13, 95% CI: 1.40, 3.22) had higher odds of medical opioid use in the last twelve months. Conclusion: Results suggest a link between tobacco use, particularly cigarette use and poly-tobacco use, and medical opioid use in rural communities. Clinical and structural level interventions need to be implemented in rural communities to reduce comorbid tobacco and opioid use.

scholarly journals An Analysis of the COVID-19 Infodemic: The Impact of American Public Sources on Sentiment, Conversation, and Physician Behaviour Towards Hydroxychloroquine

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Emily W.L. Chan ◽  
Ginah Choi ◽  
Kendrew S.K. Wong ◽  
Shirley Zeng ◽  
Anish Verma
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Health Organizations ◽  
Public Sentiment ◽  
Research Publications ◽  
The Us ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 infodemic, described as an overabundance of both accurate and inaccurate information, poses a significant public health risk in spreading fear and provoking inappropriate prescription. The overwhelming and often contradictory information on as potential treatments for COVID-19 have contributed to this infodemic. Public sources including the US federal government, health organizations, and research publications have released conflicting statements on the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine. Previous research has not analyzed the influence of these sources on public attitudes and conversation towards the drug. To evaluate this impact, changes in the number and sentiment of tweets tagged with the hashtag or keyword “hydroxychloroquine” from March 12th to June 22nd, 2020 in relation to public sources were analyzed. We found that the US government had a statistically significant influence on public attitudes and behaviour (p < 0.001), unlike health organizations and research publications. Public sentiment on hydroxychloroquine has also been observed to become more negative over time, suggesting that public attitudes towards controversial topics can change. This study also found a positive correlation between public sentiment of hydroxychloroquine and other drugs (i.e. azithromycin and remdesivir) which indicates that public sources disseminating hydroxychloroquine-related information could also affect public attitudes towards related treatments. In a public health crisis, all statements and actions from public sources regarding contentious topics like hydroxychloroquine should be made with caution. To mitigate the disproportionate influence of public sources in an infodemic, we recommend three solutions: (a) education to empower individuals of all ages to develop critical thinking and digital literacy skills; (b) stronger action from social media platforms in labeling misinformation; (c) and cooperation between entities with strong influence (e.g. federal government) and other sources for public health measures. Together, these recommendations could resolve shortcomings existent with a single approach. Future research should be conducted with a custom trained model for sentiment analysis. It would also be valuable to conduct a similar version of the study on other social media platforms as well as for public health issues beyond COVID-19.

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