Explicating the effects of narrative source and causal attribution on nulliparous Chinese women's childbirth injury-related risk perceptions and information-seeking intentions

Contrary to the prevalence of childbirth injuries, childbirth stories are rarely shared publicly. With social media granting Chinese women greater access to 'invisible' childbirth injury issues, the question arises as to how online childbirth injury information enables nulliparous (i.e. women with no previous childbirth experience) Chinese women to activate self-protective mechanisms. Two online experiments were conducted based on narrative persuasion theory to identify elements and mechanisms enhancing nulliparous Chinese women's childbirth injury-related risk perceptions and information-seeking intentions. Study 1 confirmed that risk perception was the mechanism mediating elevated information-seeking intention in female participants exposed to childbirth narratives. By integrating childbirth relationality and situationality with social media metrics, Study 2 further revealed that expert narrative was more effective than layperson narrative and that uncontrollable attribution exhibited a greater effect on promoting information-seeking intentions among female participants. Nevertheless, expert narratives were less effective than layperson narratives when the cause of childbirth injury was uncontrollable. Our findings underscore the collaborative efforts of medical professionals and ordinary women in dismantling taboos surrounding childbirth injuries via social media platforms.