Factors influencing fake news rebuttal acceptance during the COVID-19 pandemic and the moderating effect of cognitive ability

Wang, Xin; Fan, Chunju; Yu, Guang; Zhang, Kaihang

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2021.107174

Cited by 48 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 131 publications

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“…Therefore, an individual can easily acquire accurate information, which can help them adjust to new thoughts and the CECC's recommended actions to prevent COVID-19. This finding is consistent with those of other studies (e.g., Barreda-Ángeles & Hartmann, 2022 ; Qazi et al, 2020 ; Song et al, 2021 ; Wang et al, 2022 ), which have revealed that the development of situational awareness during public health crises based on formal information sources facilitates the adoption of appropriate preventive behavior, which can limit the spread of infectious diseases.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“… Bronfman et al (2021) noted that attitudes, social norms, perceived behavioral control, and knowledge levels regarding COVID-19, are critical predictors of an individual's preventive behavior. Dai et al (2020) discovered that constructive risk communication and comprehensive pandemic information had stronger effects on preventive behavior than did rumor refutation and fake news (Li, Cui, Kaminga, Cheng, & Xu, 2022; Luo, Wang, Guo, & Luo, 2021 ; Wang, Chao, Yu, & Zhang, 2022 ). Liu (2020) validated mediating pathways regarding different types of digital media consumption to preventive behaviors and showed that COVID-19-related information across digital media directly influenced preventive behaviors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Digital and physical factors influencing an individual's preventive behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan: A perspective based on the S–O–R model

Wu¹,

Robinson²,

Tsemg³

et al. 2023

Computers in Human Behavior

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital and physical factors influencing an individual's preventive behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan: A perspective based on the S–O–R model

Wu¹,

Robinson²,

Tsemg³

et al. 2023

Computers in Human Behavior

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“…An interesting study has explored the factors influencing the acceptance of fake news rebuttals, demonstrating that the source authority had a negative effect on rebuttal acceptance, while source influence had a positive effect. Moreover, the authors highlight how information readability and argument quality positively affected rebuttal acceptance [ 46 ]. However, in a social network like Facebook, both readability and argument quality are very difficult to offer because of the structure of the social network and why people spend few seconds reading (about 15 s), and as stated by the CEO of Chartbeat (a company that provides companies with real-time data to understand reader behavior): “we confuse what people have clicked on for what they have read and understood” [ 47 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been demonstrated that individuals with low cognitive abilities relied more on source credibility and argument quality to accept fake news rebuttal [ 46 ], a fact that once again underlines the importance and quality of information sources. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube issued a joint statement that stated they are “[…] jointly combating fraud and misinformation about the virus, elevating authoritative content on [their] platforms” [ 49 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Willingness to Receive COVID-19 Booster Vaccine: Associations between Green-Pass, Social Media Information, Anti-Vax Beliefs, and Emotional Balance

et al. 2022

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The aims of the present investigation were (i) to determine psychological relapses of COVID-19 booster vaccine; (ii) to identify the determining factors affecting willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine; and (iii) to study the relationship among emotional characteristics (anxiety, stress, depression, optimism), social media information, and the mandatory political choices (i.e., green-pass) in Croatian people. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted for 1003 participants (median age: 40 years) from Croatia during December 2021. Results showed a significant association between vaccinated and unvaccinated participants in all sociodemographic variables, except for gender (p = 0.905). For psychological variables, significant differences were found only for levels of optimism (p < 0.001). People with a postgraduate degree (OR: 2.25, [1.14–4.46], p = 0.020) and PhD (OR: 1.97, [95% CI: 1.01–3.52], p = 0.021) had higher odds of being vaccinated than participants with high school diplomas. Additionally, participants seeking information on TV and radio (OR: 2.35, [1.71–3.23], p < 0.001) or from general practitioner (OR: 2.53, [1.78–3.61], p < 0.001) had higher odds of being vaccinated. Conversely, participants seeking information on social networks (OR: 0.36, [0.27–0.49], p < 0.001), general internet/blogs forums (OR: 0.34, [0.22–0.52], p < 0.001), and from friends or acquaintances (OR: 0.66, [0.48–0.91], p = 0.011) had lower odds of being vaccinated. Additionally, results showed that information policies have failed to fully convince the population to vaccinate and that depression (p = 0.491), anxiety (p = 0.220), and stress (p = 0.521) were not determining factors leading to the decision to receive COVID-19 vaccine. Most of the vaccinated participants perceived the green-pass as potentially useful. In contrast, most unvaccinated participants believed that the green-pass is a form of discrimination and not useful (88%). Further and broader research into possible reasons for continuing or undertaking vaccination is needed. It is recommended to introduce a measure of conformism that represents a change of attitude, belief, or behavior in a narrower sense.

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“…Moreover, social media news use has been linked to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, which is a key issue for policy makers worldwide [ 40 ]. Second, while rare investigations have focused on the role of personality traits in COVID-19 misinformation engagement on social media [ 36 , 41 ], it has not been studied in conjunction with cognition or cognitive ability, another important factor related to individual engagement with misinformation [ 42 ]. Prior research has argued that people with certain personality traits and cognitive ability may engage with misinformation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Media News Use and COVID-19 Misinformation Engagement: Survey Study

Ahmed¹,

Rasul²

2022

J Med Internet Res

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Background Social media is widely used as a source of news and information regarding COVID-19. However, the abundance of misinformation on social media platforms has raised concerns regarding the spreading infodemic. Accordingly, many have questioned the utility and impact of social media news use on users’ engagement with (mis)information. Objective This study offers a conceptual framework for how social media news use influences COVID-19 misinformation engagement. More specifically, we examined how news consumption on social media leads to COVID-19 misinformation sharing by inducing belief in such misinformation. We further explored if the effects of social media news use on COVID-19 misinformation engagement depend on individual differences in cognition and personality traits. Methods We used data from an online survey panel administered by a survey agency (Qualtrics) in Singapore. The survey was conducted in March 2022, and 500 respondents answered the survey. All participants were older than 21 years and provided consent before taking part in the study. We used linear regression, mediation, and moderated mediation analyses to explore the proposed relationships between social media news use, cognitive ability, personality traits, and COVID-19 misinformation belief and sharing intentions. Results The results suggested that those who frequently used social media for news consumption were more likely to believe COVID-19 misinformation and share it on social media. Further probing the mechanism suggested that social media news use translated into sharing intent via the perceived accuracy of misinformation. Simply put, social media news users shared COVID-19 misinformation because they believed it to be accurate. We also found that those with high levels of extraversion than those with low levels were more likely to perceive the misinformation to be accurate and share it. Those with high levels of neuroticism and openness than those with low levels were also likely to perceive the misinformation to be accurate. Finally, it was observed that personality traits did not significantly influence misinformation sharing at higher levels of cognitive ability, but low cognitive users largely drove misinformation sharing across personality traits. Conclusions The reliance on social media platforms for news consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified, with dire consequences for misinformation sharing. This study shows that increased social media news consumption is associated with believing and sharing COVID-19 misinformation, with low cognitive users being the most vulnerable. We offer recommendations to newsmakers, social media moderators, and policymakers toward efforts in limiting COVID-19 misinformation propagation and safeguarding citizens.

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Factors influencing fake news rebuttal acceptance during the COVID-19 pandemic and the moderating effect of cognitive ability

Cited by 48 publications

References 131 publications

Digital and physical factors influencing an individual's preventive behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan: A perspective based on the S–O–R model

Digital and physical factors influencing an individual's preventive behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Taiwan: A perspective based on the S–O–R model

Willingness to Receive COVID-19 Booster Vaccine: Associations between Green-Pass, Social Media Information, Anti-Vax Beliefs, and Emotional Balance

Social Media News Use and COVID-19 Misinformation Engagement: Survey Study

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