Xue X, Ma H, Zhao Y C, et al. Mitigating the influence of message features on health misinformation sharing intention in social media: Experimental evidence for accuracy-nudge intervention[J]. Social Science & Medicine, 2024, 356: 117136.

Abstract

Rationale

The escalating dissemination of health misinformation on social media platforms poses a significant threat to users' well-being. It is imperative to identify the types of health misinformation that are more susceptible to widespread dissemination and to explore strategies to curb its spread.

Method

This study designed a 2 (emotional appeal type: positive vs. negative) × 2 (fabricated source type: pseudo-common vs. pseudo-authoritative) × 2 (accuracy-nudge label: No vs. Yes) online between-subjects experiment controlling for factors such as e-health literacy, prior sharing experience, and personal involvement. A snowball sampling approach was used to recruit 1952 participants through social media, resulting in a final sample of 1393 valid responses.

Results

Compared to positive emotional appeal and pseudo-common sources, negative emotional appeal and pseudo-authoritative sources resulted in higher levels of sharing intention. Under the condition of negative emotional appeal, the promotion effect of pseudo-authoritative sources on sharing intention was intensified. The accuracy-nudge intervention could significantly mitigate this tendency. The underlying mechanisms revealed more details: both negative emotional appeals and pseudo-authoritative sources increased the perceived credibility of health misinformation, thereby increasing users' sharing intention. However, in contrast to pseudo-authoritative sources, excessive negative emotional appeal induced vigilant verification behavior among users, which reduced sharing to some extent. Adding an accuracy-nudge label to health misinformation reduced users' misguided trust in health misinformation features and stimulated information verification, ultimately reducing health misinformation sharing intention.

Conclusions

Negative emotional appeal and pseudo-authoritative sources can enhance the perceived credibility of health misinformation, thereby strengthening the sharing intention of social media users. Therefore, health misinformation with negative emotional appeal and pseudo-authoritative sources is more likely to be widely shared. The accuracy nudge intervention can trigger users' information verification behavior, suppress the persuasive effects of the misinformation features mentioned above, and help prevent the spread of health misinformation on social media.

Keywords：health misinformation, message feature, accuracy-nudge intervention, sharing intention, social media

基金资助：国家自然科学基金面上项目“社交媒体环境下失真健康信息传播机制与协同治理研究”(项目编号：72174083);国家自然科学基金青年项目“社交媒体失真健康信息的特征识别与协同纠偏机制研究”(项目编号：72204076)研究成果之一