2024/07/01 by Megan E. Cullinan, Melissa Zimdars, Kilhoe Na · 2 voices · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Social Media and Politics
paper · doi:10.1177/20563051241269288
openalex publication_date 2024/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The information-sharing practices within alternative health social media groups makes them important spaces for analyzing and understanding the factors shaping the online spread of alternative health and health science (mis)information. Through interviews and observation of participants in alternative health groups on both Facebook and Reddit, we explore how people use health science information from government, health, and news sources, alternative health information from social media groups, and their own personal experiences and concerns to define informational (dis)trustworthiness. We identify factors that lead participants to (dis)trust health science information and explore how members assess the (dis)trustworthiness of health science information using an alternative epistemology. This alternative epistemology, or “their science,” demonstrates a trust in science unless or until it contradicts members’ experiences, beliefs, contextual concerns, or their own “research” practices.