Confirmation Bias Towards Treatments of Depressive Disorders in Social Tagging

NCT03899168 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: AG5-2014-11-Tagging
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 520
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

Brief Summary

The study examines whether people primarily want to confirm their prior attitudes in health-related information search, in an online environment using social tags for navigation. Participants were looking for information on the treatment of depression with antidepressants and psychotherapy. They were randomly assigned to two groups with either high or low credibility of the community who provides social tags, and two groups where participants' confidence in prior attitudes was heightened or lowered, and to two groups where either antidepressant tags were more popular or psychotherapy was more popular. The investigators measured attitude change toward the treatments and also navigation behavior.

Conditions

Major Depressive Disorder, Recurrent; Depressive Episode; Depressive Disorder, Major; Depression

Keywords

Depression; Mood Disorder; Information Search; Attitudes; Psychotherapy; Antidepressants

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Attitudinal Preference Score of Psychotherapy over Antidepressants

  The investigators constructed a questionnaire to measure the attitudinal preference of psychotherapy over antidepressant treatments of depressive disorders. On a 7-point likert scale, participants rate the degree of efficacy of antidepressant and psychotherapy treatments, on 8 items (e.g. item 1: "Antidepressants/Psychotherapy are/is effective in treating depression."). An index score for the degree of preference of psychotherapy is calculated by subtracting the average antidepressants score from the average psychotherapy treatment rating score for each participant. To analyse if attitudinal preferences predict the number of clicks on social tags and blog posts, the treatment preference score is entered in a logistic regression as predictor. Ratings are inquired at the beginning of the 1 hour study (prior attitudes), and at the end of the study (attitude change).

  Through study completion, an average of 1 hour. Prior to and after information search phase in the study.

• Count of clicks on antidepressant and psychotherapy treatment tags

  Both, psychotherapy and antidepressant tags can be clicked on, and are counted respectively. An index score will be calculated for each participant subtracting the sum of clicks on antidepressants from the sum of clicks on psychotherapy, to analyse if clicks are associated with the treatment preference measured by prior treatment attitudes.

  Through study completion, an average of 1 hour. During the information search phase in the study.

• Count of clicks on antidepressant and psychotherapy treatment blog posts

  Both, psychotherapy and antidepressant blog posts can be clicked on, and are counted respectively. An index score will be calculated for each participant subtracting the sum of clicks on antidepressants from the sum of clicks on psychotherapy, to analyse if clicks are associated with the treatment preference measured by prior treatment attitudes.

  Through study completion, an average of 1 hour. During the information search phase in the study.

Study Arms (3)

Social Tag Popularity

EXPERIMENTAL

Popularity of Social Tags (antidepressants more popular vs. psychotherapy more popular)

Other: Social Tag Popularity

Confidence in Prior Attitudes

EXPERIMENTAL

Confidence in prior attitudes (high vs. low: recalling situations in which participants were confident or uncertain about their thoughts)

Other: Confidence in Prior Attitudes

Source Credibility

EXPERIMENTAL

Credibility of the source (tagging community: experts - many years of professional experience vs. novices - students in the first semester)

Other: Source Credibility

Interventions

Social Tag Popularity OTHER

The relative size of treatment tags in a tag cloud was either larger for antidepressant treatments or psychotherapy treatments.

Social Tag Popularity

Confidence in Prior Attitudes OTHER

Participants thought back of situations in which they were either confident or doubtful about their own knowledge. This should elicit a mindset where participants are more or less confident about their own prior attitudes.

Confidence in Prior Attitudes

Source Credibility OTHER

The source credibility of the community that allegedly collected and labelled the blog posts was either high or low in terms of expertise. Either experts (high credibility) or first semester students (low credibility) did allegedly collect blog posts. This was indicated by banners on top of the navigation platform in the internet browser.

Source Credibility

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 60 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• Online Population - Internet Browser, Representative Sample of Germans with respect to age and region

You may not qualify if:

• No Internet Browser

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien: lead

Related Publications (1)

• Schweiger S, Cress U. How Confidence in Prior Attitudes, Social Tag Popularity, and Source Credibility Shape Confirmation Bias Toward Antidepressants and Psychotherapy in a Representative German Sample: Randomized Controlled Web-Based Study. J Med Internet Res. 2019 Apr 23;21(4):e11081. doi: 10.2196/11081.

  PMID: 31012865 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Depressive Disorder, Major; Recurrence; Depression; Mood Disorders; Behavior

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Depressive Disorder; Mental Disorders; Disease Attributes; Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Behavioral Symptoms

Study Officials

• Stefan Schweiger

  Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, INVESTIGATOR
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: FACTORIAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Researcher

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 27, 2019
• First Posted: April 2, 2019
• Study Start: November 14, 2014
• Primary Completion: November 14, 2014
• Study Completion: November 14, 2014
• Last Updated: April 2, 2019

Record last verified: 2019-03

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: Data will become available upon publication of the study until May 2019.
• Access Criteria: The completely anonymized data will be available for researchers and the public who access the published paper at the Journal of Medical Internet research.