The impact of toxic trolling comments on anti-vaccine YouTube videos

Anti-vaccine trolling on video-hosting websites hinders efforts to increase vaccination rates by using toxic language and threatening claims to intimidate people and promote vaccine hesitancy. However, there is a shortage of research investigating the effects of toxic messages on these platforms. Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2024-03, Vol.14 (1), p.5088-5088, Article 5088
Main Authors: Miyazaki, Kunihiro, Uchiba, Takayuki, Kwak, Haewoon, An, Jisun, Sasahara, Kazutoshi
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/477/2811
639/705/258
Animals
Emotional contagion
Emotions
Fear
Fearful comment
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Immunization
Language
multidisciplinary
Public health
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Social Media
Social networks
Toxic comment
Toxicity
Ursidae
Vaccination - psychology
Vaccine hesitancy
Vaccines
YouTube videos
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Summary:Anti-vaccine trolling on video-hosting websites hinders efforts to increase vaccination rates by using toxic language and threatening claims to intimidate people and promote vaccine hesitancy. However, there is a shortage of research investigating the effects of toxic messages on these platforms. This study focused on YouTube anti-vaccine videos and examined the relationship between toxicity and fear in the comment section of these videos. We discovered that highly liked toxic comments were associated with a significant level of fear in subsequent comments. Moreover, we found complex patterns of contagion between toxicity and fear in the comments. These findings suggest that initial troll comments can evoke negative emotions in viewers, potentially fueling vaccine hesitancy. Our research bears essential implications for managing public health messaging and online communities, particularly in moderating fear-mongering messages about vaccines on social media.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-024-54925-w