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Biological, psychological and social processes that explain celebrities’ influence on patients’ health-related behaviors

Overview of attention for article published in Archives of Public Health, January 2015
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • Among the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#11 of 1,144)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (93rd percentile)

Mentioned by

news
9 news outlets
policy
1 policy source
twitter
31 X users
facebook
2 Facebook pages
wikipedia
4 Wikipedia pages

Citations

dimensions_citation
78 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
225 Mendeley
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Title
Biological, psychological and social processes that explain celebrities’ influence on patients’ health-related behaviors
Published in
Archives of Public Health, January 2015
DOI 10.1186/2049-3258-73-3
Pubmed ID
Authors

Steven J Hoffman, Charlie Tan

Abstract

Celebrities can have substantial influence as medical advisors. However, their impact on public health is equivocal: depending on the advice's validity and applicability, celebrity engagements can benefit or hinder efforts to educate patients on evidence-based practices and improve their health literacy. This meta-narrative analysis synthesizes multiple disciplinary insights explaining the influence celebrities have on people's health-related behaviors. Systematic searches of electronic databases BusinessSource Complete, Communication & Mass Media Complete, Humanities Abstracts, ProQuest Political Science, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Sociology Abstracts were conducted. Retrieved articles were used to inform a conceptual analysis of the possible processes accounting for the substantial influence celebrities may have as medical advisors. Fourteen mechanisms of celebrity influence were identified. According to the economics literature, celebrities distinguish endorsed items from competitors and can catalyze herd behavior. Marketing studies tell us that celebrities' characteristics are transferred to endorsed products, and that the most successful celebrity advisors are those viewed as credible, a perception they can create with their success. Neuroscience research supports these explanations, finding that celebrity endorsements activate brain regions involved in making positive associations, building trust and encoding memories. The psychology literature tells us that celebrity advice conditions people to react positively toward it. People are also inclined to follow celebrities if the advice matches their self-conceptions or if not following it would generate cognitive dissonance. Sociology explains how celebrities' advice spreads through social networks, how their influence is a manifestation of people's desire to acquire celebrities' social capital, and how they affect the ways people acquire and interpret health information. There are clear and deeply rooted biological, psychological and social processes that explain how celebrities influence people's health behaviors. With a better understanding of this phenomenon, medical professionals can work to ensure that it is harnessed for good rather than abused for harm. Physicians can discuss with their patients the validity of celebrity advice and share more credible sources of health information. Public health practitioners can debunk celebrities offering unsubstantiated advice or receiving inappropriate financial compensation, and should collaborate with well-meaning celebrities, leveraging their influence to disseminate medical practices of demonstrated benefit.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 31 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 225 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Spain 1 <1%
United States 1 <1%
Switzerland 1 <1%
Unknown 222 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Bachelor 42 19%
Student > Master 25 11%
Researcher 16 7%
Student > Ph. D. Student 13 6%
Student > Postgraduate 11 5%
Other 42 19%
Unknown 76 34%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 27 12%
Business, Management and Accounting 23 10%
Psychology 23 10%
Social Sciences 18 8%
Nursing and Health Professions 11 5%
Other 35 16%
Unknown 88 39%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 102. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 13 February 2024.
All research outputs
#414,635
of 25,374,647 outputs
Outputs from Archives of Public Health
#11
of 1,144 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#5,034
of 360,135 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Archives of Public Health
#1
of 16 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,374,647 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,144 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.1. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 360,135 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 16 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.