Effects of hyperlinks and exemplification on audience’s information seeking intentions in online health news

With Lyme disease rates rising in many regions, health communicators must consider what message formats engage readers to learn more about the disease. This online experiment draws on technological affordances and exemplification theory to compare how presenting different levels of hyperlinks and exemplars (versus base-rate information) may shape audience perceptions of Lyme disease. Reading a news article with celebrity exemplars led to more anxiety perceptions compared to reading a base-rate article. There was an indirect effect of message type on information seeking intentions through anxiety. No main effect of hyperlink level was found. Future studies can explore other technological affordances and exemplars in risk communication.