Information Sharing to Promote Risky Health Behavior on Social Media

A large number of posts promoting risky health behavior are posted on social media, but not all posts are widely disseminated. Disseminated information is more likely to influence social media users as users may not be exposed to non-disseminated posts. Thus, this study focuses on principal characteristics of disseminated Twitter posts that attract individuals who promote smoking behavior. After collecting 6,432 tweets and analyzing highly disseminated and non-disseminated Tweets, this study found that Tweets expressing emotional support were observed more than expected among the pro-smoking group and less than expected among the anti-smoking group. Affective tone was also found to be an important factor in Tweet dissemination both in pro- and anti-smoking groups. Interestingly, in the pro-smoking group, Tweets having a negative tone were disseminated more than those having a positive tone. This paper concludes with the discussion of theoretical and practical implications of the current findings.