Hype News Diffusion and Risk of Misinformation: The Oz Effect in Health Care

Consumers’ choices about health products are heavily influenced by public information, such as news articles, research articles, online customer reviews, online product discussion, and TV shows. Dr. Oz, a celebrity physician, often makes medical recommendations with limited or marginal scientific evidence. Although reputable news agencies have traditionally acted as gatekeepers of reliable information, they face the intense pressure of “the eyeball game.” Customer reviews, despite their authenticity, may come from deceived consumers. Therefore, it remains unclear whether public information sources can correct the misleading health information. In the context of over-the-counter weight loss products, the authors carefully analyze the cascading of information post endorsement. The analysis of extensive textual content with deep-learning methods reveals that legitimate news outlets respond to Dr. Oz's endorsement by generating more news articles about the ingredient; on average, articles after the endorsement contain higher sentiment, so news agencies seem to amplify rather than rectify the misleading endorsement. The finding highlights a serious concern: the risk of hype news diffusion. Research articles react too slowly to mitigate the problem, and online customer reviews and product discussions provide only marginal corrections. The findings underscore the importance of oversight to mitigate the risk of cascading hype news.