YouTube PSAs: Comments More Persuasive Than Videos
Professor Joseph Walther led an MSU research project that found that comments accompanying YouTube public service announcements were more persuasive to viewers than the videos themselves. Image credit: Michigan State University
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University researchers, studying public service announcements placed on YouTube about marijuana use, have found that the comments accompanying the PSAs are more influential among viewers than the videos themselves.
The researchers showed four anti-marijuana PSAs, and the accompanying comments, to college students and asked for their evaluations of the PSAs and their attitudes about marijuana.
What was found was that negative, derisive comments about the video led the students to perceive the video as worse than when the comments were positive, even though they watched the videos individually. And when students identified with the anonymous commenters, the comments affected their perceptions of marijuana’s harmful effects.
“Generally, the comments changed people’s attitudes more than the variations of the videos,” said Joseph Walther, a professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media, and the Department of Communication, who led the research. (more…)