Raffael Heiss

How Social Media Platforms Influence Academic Research, and How to Address it Imagine if food or drug companies were allowed to hide the ingredients of their products from independent researchers. In a new comment published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Isab...

📣New blog post📣

I summarize how social media platforms can influence all stages of the research cycle, and why control over data access amplifies this influence.

Based on a recent comment w/ @freiling.bsky.social (linked in the post).

#PlatformGovernance

www.raffaelheiss.com/post/how-soc...

Do #socialmedia #platforms influence academic research?
Little reason to assume they don’t.

They fund research and control data access—amplifying industry influence across the research cycle.

New comment w/ @freiling.bsky.social: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#DataAccess #ResearchIntegrity #DSA

"With ... policy reforms and critical academic debates ... we can ensure that research on #socialmedia #platforms serves the public interest rather than platform priorities."

@raffaelheiss.bsky.social and @freiling.bsky.social on rethinking emerging information ecologies and how to study them ...

📢 Publication 📢

J Matthes, A Binder, @sofievranken.bsky.social @raffaelheiss.bsky.social, & @jarakankova.bsky.social content-analyzed alcohol in kids' media, revealing that it's comparatively more often verbally mentioned, interacted with, consumed, & linked to villains.

👉🏼 doi.org/10.1080/1520...

Some illustrative examples for each of the four biases (of course, many influencers may combine several of these biases simultaneously).

The four key biases of influencers’ medical advice (👇comment).

#Influencers reach millions – often more than traditional news media – yet are still seen as private individuals and thus evade editorial responsibility.

New blog post on our @bmj.com analysis: www.raffaelheiss.com/post/medical...

Responding to public health challenges of medical advice from social media influencers Raffael Heiss and colleagues argue that influencers’ medical advice is often shaped by multiple biases and suggest how to reduce the associated risks Social media influencers have become powerful in ...

And because biased or misleading advice from influencers - amplified by parasocial bonds and direct engagement - can cause harm...

Governments and platforms have responsibilities and must act:
www.bmj.com/content/391/...

Health information in age of social media and influence Improving health discourse needs attention to information environments where trust can grow. Social media influencers have entered the healthcare conversation. Raffael Heiss and colleagues’ analysis ...

Medical advice from influencers is vexed by their lack of expertise, financial interests & industry influence

What to do?! NEW @bmj.com some answers.

We are not paying enough attention to the complexity & nuance of information environments where trust can grow
www.bmj.com/content/391/...

Responding to public health challenges of medical advice from social media influencers Raffael Heiss and colleagues argue that influencers’ medical advice is often shaped by multiple biases and suggest how to reduce the associated risks Social media influencers have become powerful in ...

Responding to public health challenges of medical advice from social media influencers www.bmj.com/content/391/...

"Influencers’ reliability is often undermined by four key biases: lack of expertise, industry influence, entrepreneurial interests, and personal beliefs."

Social media influencers

Social media influencers are a growing source of medical advice but can be misleading.

Misleading advice—amplified by parasocial bonds and direct engagement—can cause physical, psychological, financial, and systemic harm, say Raffael Heiss and colleagues
www.bmj.com/content/391/...

The harmful and biased medical advice from social medial influencers, highlighting lack of expertise and financial conflicts. Many specific examples and recommendations provided
bmj.com/content/391/...

📣New @bmj.com Analysis📣

We identify 4 key biases in #SocialMedia #Influencers’ medical advice — lack of expertise, industry influence, entrepreneurial interests, personal beliefs — and discuss examples. Importantly, we also outline key policy actions needed.

Full text: www.bmj.com/content/391/...

📣New study in #JournalofAdolescentHealth: Among 1,003 Austrian youth, 83% see #health content from #influencers and 53% buy health products they recommend (see graph).

Parasocial ties ↑ susceptibility to marketing; digital #healthliteracy protects.

🔗STUDY LINK (free): doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...

🚨 Some #NPOs look like independent #healthinformation hubs - but operate as strategic arms of the #F&B industry.

They influence science, public messaging, and policy-makers.

We study 5 cases: ILSI Europe, EUFIC, BNF, FEN, and Austria’s FEH.

worldnutritionjournal.org/index.php/wn...

(c) G. Mondy

I got an email yesterday afternoon that my NSF SPRF Postdoctoral Fellowship was terminated. My grant focused on testing interventions to address online misinformation and I was 8 months into a two year appointment.

School Education Needs Change to Bridge Gaps in Health Literacy "Neither age nor grade level were significant predictors of health literacy."School education is meant to equip young people with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in society. But our socie...

📢 New Blog Post

A recent study shows that three-quarters of the German population have inadequate health literacy.

But what role does school education play — and what needs to change?

📖 Read the full post: www.raffaelheiss.com/post/school-...

#HealthLiteracy #HealthEducation #PublicHealth

📢 Spannender Artikel zum Thema #HealthInfluencer – mit Bezug auf unsere Studien und einem Blick auf die Chancen & Risiken.💡

Auch darin: spannende Interviews mit Influencern & Forschern – ich durfte auch ein paar Gedanken beisteuern.

#Medienkompetenz #Gesundheitskommunikation #PublicHealth

📢 New Publication 📢

Alice Binder et al. analyzed TV series and movies named by Austrian kids and their parents, revealing that unhealthy food dominates, and further that characters' nonverbal evaluation of food is prominently linked to nutritional classifications.

👉🏼 doi.org/10.1016/j.jn...

The NIH canceled my research on vaccine hesitancy The decision to end research on vaccine hesitancy is deeply disrespectful of those who have lost or will lose loved ones to vaccine-preventable disease.

The NIH canceled my research on vaccine hesitancy www.statnews.com/2025/03/28/v... via @statnews

"Each year in the United States, approximately 6,000 people die from influenza.

More than 7,000 will die from Covid-19 in 2025.

...an American child died from measles for the first time in a decade."

So it begins: "Email directs NIH staff to identify grants related to ‘fighting misinformation’."
Honestly, I was a bit surprised that earlier lists of forbidden terms didn’t (yet) include “misinformation” & “disinformation.”
Turns out, they had a separate plan for dealing with that kind of research.

Wie erkenne ich 🚩🚩🚩 in den Gesundheitstipps von #Influencern? Unsere Checkliste hilft, fragwürdige Inhalte zu entlarven.
👇👇👇

The weaponization of scientific institutions by an anti-science government…

📢Does school education improve #HealthLiteracy? Our data say NO.

We tested 780 Austrian pupils (9–13) using a performance-based HL test.

❌Result: No improvements w/ grade level (fig1).

⚠️Problem: They increasingly rely on unmoderated sources, but aren’t prepared (fig2).

🔗FULL STUDY: rdcu.be/eb548

Social Media Posts About Medical Tests With Potential for Overdiagnosis This cross-sectional study examines the tone and content of social media posts that discuss popular medical tests with potential for overdiagnosis or overuse.

🚨 New study out!

We coded ~1,000 TikTok & Insta posts on 5 controversial medical tests: 87% hyped benefits, only 15% mentioned harms. 68% had financial ties.
👉 #Overdiagnosis

Study led by @brookenickel.bsky.social & @sydneyhealthlitlab.bsky.social 🌟

Read here👇

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Why We Should Stop Using Mediation Analysis "Imagine that a medical research group were to conduct an experimental test of a new drug for dementia, and use mediation analysis…”

New blog post on #MediationAnalysis (MA), which is widely misunderstood and overused in #CommunicationResearch and #Psychology.

I made mistakes using MA myself, and no one should be blamed. But it's important to discuss flaws, esp. as MA has become so popular.

www.raffaelheiss.com/post/mediation

‘Nicotine Nazis’: the brickbats hurled at scientists researching tobacco’s harms A study highlights how public-health researchers are targeted for focusing on tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods.

Thanks to @nature.com for publishing this article on our recent research into the #intimidation of #publichealth researchers working on tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed foods.

Read it here: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I recently joined the @ejhc.bsky.social as an associate editor. The #EJHC is a great university-led #nonprofit & #nopaywall project, all articles are rigorously peer-reviewed and published #openaccess free of charge. Looking forward to your #healthcom submissions!💪

Link: ejhc.org