Promoting organ donation through Weibo: The impact of user-generated cues and message evidence on donating beliefs

This study investigates how persuasive messages presented on social networking sites (SNSs) affect readers’ beliefs regarding organ donation. In particular, the experiment examines the independent effect of evidence type and its joined effects with need for affect on donating beliefs. It also explores how the number of user-generated cues attached to the original messages influences beliefs, given that such cues will integrate into health promotion messages in campaigns involving SNSs. The findings show that statistical evidence results in a significantly higher level of negative cognitive beliefs than dose narrative and combined evidence. In addition, when narratives are presented, individual’s need for affect is positively associated with the level of negative cognitive beliefs. Yet such association does not exist when two other types of evidence are presented. On the other hand, the number of user-generated cues does not shape the audiences’ donating beliefs, but only people’s perceived popularity of the messages.