Abstract Social media encourage the rapid spreading of food-related information and potentially act as a policy measure to improve food literacy, healthy eating and well-being. However, some authors warn about the lack of control over the quality of the shared information and the risks of knowledge distortion. The aim of this research is to understand how food literacy is co-constructed on social media and to identify the potential sources of bias, which lead to knowledge distortion. We use a netnographic approach (i.e. analysis of behavioral secondary data from social media and semi-structured interviews) to study both phenomena. Findings indicate that food literacy can be positively or negatively co-constructed in a social environment. Consumers can contribute to the construction of food literacy directly or indirectly on three levels (i.e. evaluation, adaptation suggestions and procedural critiques), which vary in depth and breadth of contribution. We further identify four types of biases, which risk affecting the quality of the co-constructed food literacy online, namely vividness, mindset, socio-cultural and cognitive dissonance bias. Findings help food policy makers to better understand how food literacy is developed outside of their control, and to identify the potential sources of knowledge distortion and how they can reduce these biases.

中文翻译：

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“社交食物”：社交媒体上的食物素养共建与扭曲

摘要 社交媒体鼓励食品相关信息的快速传播，并有可能成为提高食品素养、健康饮食和福祉的政策措施。然而，一些作者警告说，缺乏对共享信息质量的控制以及知识扭曲的风险。本研究的目的是了解食品素养是如何在社交媒体上共同构建的，并确定导致知识扭曲的潜在偏见来源。我们使用网络学方法（即分析来自社交媒体和半结构化访谈的行为二手数据）来研究这两种现象。研究结果表明，食物素养可以在社会环境中积极或消极地共同构建。消费者可以在三个层面直接或间接地为食品素养建设做出贡献（即 评估、适应建议和程序批评），其贡献的深度和广度各不相同。我们进一步确定了四种可能影响在线共同构建食物素养质量的偏见，即生动性、心态、社会文化和认知失调偏见。调查结果有助于食品政策制定者更好地了解食品素养是如何在他们的控制之外发展起来的，并确定知识扭曲的潜在来源以及他们如何减少这些偏见。