Investigating Social Media Engagement Patterns Associated with Wildlife Handling
Disciplines
Clinical Epidemiology | Epidemiology | Molecular Biology | Other Public Health | Public Health Education and Promotion
Abstract (300 words maximum)
Zoonotic pathogen spillover events into human populations are an increasing risk world-wide. This is due to increased human interactions with wildlife involving direct contact with an animal. While historically persons have avoided encounters with wildlife associated with disease (e.g., bats), social media may be normalizing human contact with those wildlife species associated with zoonotic human pathogen transmission. In this study, we investigated those engagement patterns associated with videos on social media in the context of the presence of wildlife in a video, as well as those videos with persons handling wildlife with and without appropriate personal protective equipment. We found that those videos showing direct human to wildlife contact had a higher number of “likes” (i.e., positive reinforcement) then those without direct contact (i.e., those showing no human skin to wildlife contact). Our preliminary results indicate the presence of a trend showing that wildlife handling on social media may drive increased “likes” and could subsequently normalize and promote risky human/wildlife interactions.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
CSM - Molecular and Cellular Biology
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Andrew Haddow
Investigating Social Media Engagement Patterns Associated with Wildlife Handling
Zoonotic pathogen spillover events into human populations are an increasing risk world-wide. This is due to increased human interactions with wildlife involving direct contact with an animal. While historically persons have avoided encounters with wildlife associated with disease (e.g., bats), social media may be normalizing human contact with those wildlife species associated with zoonotic human pathogen transmission. In this study, we investigated those engagement patterns associated with videos on social media in the context of the presence of wildlife in a video, as well as those videos with persons handling wildlife with and without appropriate personal protective equipment. We found that those videos showing direct human to wildlife contact had a higher number of “likes” (i.e., positive reinforcement) then those without direct contact (i.e., those showing no human skin to wildlife contact). Our preliminary results indicate the presence of a trend showing that wildlife handling on social media may drive increased “likes” and could subsequently normalize and promote risky human/wildlife interactions.