by admin » Tue Dec 03, 2013 6:20 pm
Experimental Design
Participants were asked to complete a pretest survey that asked about media use habits, science knowledge and efficacy, and nanotechnology support, among other items. The experiment was a between-subjects design and consisted of a neutral blog post from a Canadian newspaper that detailed equivalent risk and benefit information about nanotechnology. Specifically, the nanotechnology blog post discussed nanosilver particles and compared risks (e.g. water contamination) with benefits (e.g. antibacterial properties). Participants were given one of eight manipulations that varied by “user” comments under the post. We chose to utilize blog comments as a space for deliberation because this is a standard and stable platform utilized on most blog and news websites. Thus, the concept of commenting in online sites is a familiar one to most people who are Internet users, while other discussion platforms, such as discussion forums or social media sites, are not as widely used or have only gained traction in recent years.
The manipulations of interest in this study were that of civil vs. uncivil comments. For example, an uncivil comment began with “If you don't see the benefits of using nanotechnology in these products, you're an idiot.” Alternatively, civil comments made the same argument as their uncivil counterparts, but used polite language and acknowledgement of other users by names and not expletives. After reading the stimulus, respondents were asked to complete a posttest survey that asked about the blog and comments, risk and benefit perceptions, and demographic information, among other items. This study focuses on respondents who received the nanotechnology issue, which gave a final sample size of n = 1,1831.