The effect of source expertise on the persuasiveness and sharing of health information on social media: A systematic review
Benjamin P Simmonds, Keith J Ransom, Emily Mullins, Rachel G Stephens · 2026
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Description
Benjamin P Simmonds and co-authors published a review in 2026 on whether expert sources sway people more on social media health posts. People now get much health advice online, where quality varies widely. The review compared health experts with non-experts, and single experts with expert groups.
Three searches across four databases found 25 studies in 22 papers. People were only slightly more persuaded by experts than by non-experts. Whether the expert was a person or a group made no difference. Matching trust cues helped experts, while clashing cues could make expertise backfire. Evidence on sharing was mixed. The authors call for studies that track how both kinds of source are seen online.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Benjamin P Simmonds, Keith J Ransom, Emily Mullins, Rachel G Stephens |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 55754 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |