Global Conference 2019

            Examination of the concurrent evolution of communication tools and eating behaviors over recent decades reveals that social media and other forms of digital content have become powerful new driving forces for nutritional choices and food consumption. Drawing upon regulatory focus theory, the current research investigated the interaction effect of social media types (text-based vs. image-based) and contents types (prevention focused vs. promotion focused) on the efficacy of health communications in social media contexts. The findings from this research demonstrated that when prevention focused health contents was posted on text-based social media, individuals reacted the content more positively compared when the content was posted on image-based social media. However, the significant interaction effect was not found in the promotion focused content condition. This study extends the applicability of regulatory focus theory to the health communications in social media as well as offers practical implications to create more effective health communications.