Clinical trial NCT03899168: Confirmation Bias Towards Treatments of Depressive Disorders in Social Tagging
Official title: 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
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Major Depressive Disorder, Recurrent
Depressive Episode
Depressive Disorder, Major
Depression
Keywords: Depression
Mood Disorder
Information Search
Attitudes
Psychotherapy
Antidepressants
Lead sponsor: Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2019-04-02
Enrollment: 520
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 60
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: FACTORIAL
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

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.

Detailed description: In health-related, Web-based information searches, people should select information in line with expert (vs nonexpert) information, independent of their prior attitudes and consequent confirmation bias.

This study aimed to investigate confirmation bias in mental health-related information searches, particularly (1) if high confidence worsens confirmation bias, (2) if social tags eliminate the influence of prior attitudes, and (3) if people successfully distinguish high and low source credibility.

In total, 520 participants of a representative sample of the German Web-based population were recruited via a panel company. Among them, 48.1% (250/520) participants completed the fully automated study. Participants provided prior attitudes about antidepressants and psychotherapy. The investigators manipulated (1) confidence in prior attitudes when participants searched for blog posts about the treatment of depression, (2) tag popularity -either psychotherapy or antidepressant tags were more popular, and (3) source credibility with banners indicating high or low expertise of the tagging community. The investigators measured tag and blog post selection, and treatment efficacy ratings after navigation.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

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

Exclusion Criteria:

No Internet Browser

Primary outcomes:
measure: Attitudinal Preference Score of Psychotherapy over Antidepressants
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of 1 hour. Prior to and after information search phase in the study.
measure: Count of clicks on antidepressant and psychotherapy treatment tags
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of 1 hour. During the information search phase in the study.
measure: Count of clicks on antidepressant and psychotherapy treatment blog posts
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of 1 hour. During the information search phase in the study.
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien
name: Stefan Schweiger
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: 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.