What Motivates Internet Users to Search for Asperger Syndrome and Autism on Google?

Overview

Journal Int J Environ Res Public Health

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Environmental Health
Public Health

Date 2020 Dec 18

PMID 33333991

Citations 5

Authors

Raul Tarraga-Minguez

Irene Gomez-Mari

Pilar Sanz-Cervera

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Social campaigns are carried out to promote autism spectrum disorder (ASD) awareness, normalization, and visibility. The internet helps to shape perceptions of Asperger syndrome and autism. In fact, these campaigns often coincide with the increase in searches for both diagnoses on Google. We have two study objectives: to use Google Trends to identify the annual time points from 2015 to 2019 with the highest Google search traffic in Spain for the terms "autism" and "Asperger", and to identify news and trending topics related to ASD that took place during the weeks with the highest number of Google searches for these terms. Google Trend, MyNews and Trendinalia were used to analyze the volume of searches and trending topics related to ASD. As a result, social marketing campaigns, social networks and the publication of news items act as powerful voices that can provide a realistic or sensationalist picture of the disorder. For this reason, we concluded that campaigns play an important role in the normalization of ASD, and that it is important for organizations concerned with the visibility and social inclusion of people with ASD to check the way ASD is portrayed through the internet, media, and social networks.

Citing Articles

Public concerns and attitudes towards autism on Chinese social media based on K-means algorithm.

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Analysis of Spanish Parents' Knowledge about ASD and Their Attitudes towards Inclusive Education.

Gomez-Mari I, Tarraga-Minguez R, Pastor-Cerezuela G Eur J Investig Health Psychol Educ. 2022; 12(7):870-881.

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Testing the Structural Validity of the Self-Stigma Scale in Relatives of People with Autism in the Spanish Context.

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Online Attitudes and Information-Seeking Behavior on Autism, Asperger Syndrome, and Greta Thunberg.

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