Who spread COVID-19 (mis)information online? Differential informedness, psychological mechanisms, and intervention strategies

How life circumstances during public health crises affect people to share and correct misinformation: a perspective of the third-person effect

Introduction

Misinformation spreading on social media often parallels public crises, such as the outbreak of COVID-19, because people's behaviors regarding misinformation may be influenced by their typical life circumstances. With the increasing severity of living conditions, misinformation is believed to spread more widely, while corrective behaviors tend to decrease. Furthermore, social comparison also affects the perception of life circumstances and subsequent behaviors. Taking Shanghai's COVID-19 lockdown as an example, this study examined whether two representative factors-the duration of the lockdown and the satisfaction with relief measures-affected people's tendency to share and correct misinformation. By employing the third-person effect (TPE) theory, the underlying mechanisms of social comparison were also explored.

Methods

An online survey was conducted in April 2022, when the Zero-COVID policy was implemented in Shanghai. In addition to questions about life circumstances, a third-person perception scale, a behaviors of sharing misinformation scale, and a behaviors of correcting misinformation scale were included in the survey. Finally, 7,962 valid responses were collected.

Results

It was found that both behaviors-sharing and correcting misinformation-were affected by life circumstances but in different ways. The evidence also supported the existence of third-person perception (TPP). It was observed that the relationship between satisfaction with relief measures and sharing behavior was mediated by Third-Person Perception.

Conclusion

This study reveals that the proliferation of misinformation during crises is related to the deterioration of people's perception of life circumstances. Social comparison often plays a significant role, as was reflected by the TPE.

Investigation of Public Acceptance of Misinformation Correction in Social Media Based on Sentiment Attributions: Infodemiology Study Using Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis

BACKGROUND

The proliferation of misinformation on social media is a significant concern due to its frequent occurrence and subsequent adverse social consequences. Effective interventions for and corrections of misinformation have become a focal point of scholarly inquiry. However, exploration of the underlying causes that affect the public acceptance of misinformation correction is still important and not yet sufficient.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to identify the critical attributions that influence public acceptance of misinformation correction by using attribution analysis of aspects of public sentiment, as well as investigate the differences and similarities in public sentiment attributions in different types of misinformation correction.

METHODS

A theoretical framework was developed for analysis based on attribution theory, and public sentiment attributions were divided into 6 aspects and 11 dimensions. The correction posts for the 31 screened misinformation events comprised 33,422 Weibo posts, and the corresponding Weibo comments amounted to 370,218. A pretraining model was used to assess public acceptance of misinformation correction from these comments, and the aspect-based sentiment analysis method was used to identify the attributions of public sentiment response. Ultimately, this study revealed the causality between public sentiment attributions and public acceptance of misinformation correction through logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

The findings were as follows: First, public sentiments attributed to external attribution had a greater impact on public acceptance than those attributed to internal attribution. The public associated different aspects with correction depending on the type of misinformation. The accuracy of the correction and the entity responsible for carrying it out had a significant impact on public acceptance of misinformation correction. Second, negative sentiments toward the media significantly increased, and public trust in the media significantly decreased. The collapse of media credibility had a detrimental effect on the actual effectiveness of misinformation correction. Third, there was a significant difference in public attitudes toward the official government and local governments. Public negative sentiments toward local governments were more pronounced.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings imply that public acceptance of misinformation correction requires flexible communication tailored to public sentiment attribution. The media need to rebuild their image and regain public trust. Moreover, the government plays a central role in public acceptance of misinformation correction. Some local governments need to repair trust with the public. Overall, this study offered insights into practical experience and a theoretical foundation for controlling various types of misinformation based on attribution analysis of public sentiment.

[Mis- and disinformation in social media: mitigating risks in digital health communication]

Misinformation and disinformation in social media have become a challenge for effective public health measures. Here, we examine factors that influence believing and sharing false information, both misinformation and disinformation, at individual, social, and contextual levels and discuss intervention possibilities.At the individual level, knowledge deficits, lack of skills, and emotional motivation have been associated with believing in false information. Lower health literacy, a conspiracy mindset and certain beliefs increase susceptibility to false information. At the social level, the credibility of information sources and social norms influence the sharing of false information. At the contextual level, emotions and the repetition of messages affect belief in and sharing of false information.Interventions at the individual level involve measures to improve knowledge and skills. At the social level, addressing social processes and social norms can reduce the sharing of false information. At the contextual level, regulatory approaches involving social networks is considered an important point of intervention.Social inequalities play an important role in the exposure to and processing of misinformation. It remains unclear to which degree the susceptibility to belief in and share misinformation is an individual characteristic and/or context dependent. Complex interventions are required that should take into account multiple influencing factors.

Infodemic: Challenges and solutions in topic discovery and data process

BACKGROUND

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was a huge shock to society, and the ensuing information problems had a huge impact on society at the same time. The urgent need to understand the Infodemic, i.e., the importance of the spread of false information related to the epidemic, has been highlighted. However, while there is a growing interest in this phenomenon, studies on the topic discovery, data collection, and data preparation phases of the information analysis process have been lacking.

OBJECTIVE

Since the epidemic is unprecedented and has not ended to this day, we aimed to examine the existing Infodemic-related literature from January 2019 to December 2022.

METHODS

We have systematically searched ScienceDirect and IEEE Xplore databases with some search limitations. From the searched literature we selected titles, abstracts and keywords, and limitations sections. We conducted an extensive structured literature search and analysis by filtering the literature and sorting out the available information.

RESULTS

A total of 47 papers ended up meeting the requirements of this review. Researchers in all of these literatures encountered different challenges, most of which were focused on the data collection step, with few challenges encountered in the data preparation phase and almost none in the topic discovery section. The challenges were mainly divided into the points of how to collect data quickly, how to get the required data samples, how to filter the data, what to do if the data set is too small, how to pick the right classifier and how to deal with topic drift and diversity. In addition, researchers have proposed partial solutions to the challenges, and we have also proposed possible solutions.

CONCLUSIONS

This review found that Infodemic is a rapidly growing research area that attracts the interest of researchers from different disciplines. The number of studies in this field has increased significantly in recent years, with researchers from different countries, including the United States, India, and China. Infodemic topic discovery, data collection, and data preparation are not easy, and each step faces different challenges. While there is some research in this emerging field, there are still many challenges that need to be addressed. These findings highlight the need for more articles to address these issues and fill these gaps.

Examining an Altruism-Eliciting Video Intervention to Increase COVID-19 Vaccine Intentions in Younger Adults: A Qualitative Assessment Using the Realistic Evaluation Framework

COVID-19 vaccine-induced immunity wanes over time, and with the emergence of new variants, additional "booster" doses have been recommended in Canada. However, booster vaccination uptake has remained low, particularly amongst younger adults aged 18-39. A previous study by our research team found that an altruism-eliciting video increased COVID-19 vaccination intentions. Using qualitative methods, the present study aims to: (1) identify the factors that influence vaccine decision-making in Canadian younger adults; (2) understand younger adults' perceptions of an altruism-eliciting video designed to increase COVID-19 vaccine intentions; and (3) explore how the video can be improved and adapted to the current pandemic context. We conducted three focus groups online with participants who: (1) received at least one booster vaccine, (2) received the primary series without any boosters, or (3) were unvaccinated. We used deductive and inductive approaches to analyze data. Deductively, informed by the realist evaluation framework, we synthesized data around three main themes: context, mechanism, and intervention-specific suggestions. Within each main theme, we deductively created subthemes based on the health belief model (HBM). For quotes that could not be captured by these subthemes, additional themes were created inductively. We found multiple factors that could be important considerations in future messaging to increase vaccine acceptance, such as feeling empowered, fostering confidence in government and institutions, providing diverse (such as both altruism and individualism) messaging, and including concrete data (such as the prevalence of vulnerable individuals). These findings suggest targeted messaging tailored to these themes would be helpful to increase COVID-19 booster vaccination amongst younger adults.

Factors Affecting the Success of Social Commerce in Kuwaiti Microbusinesses

Many studies have focused on the adoption of social commerce (s-commerce) by customers but not by businesses or by microbusinesses. Further, they have investigated this adoption from a researcher's perspective while using quantitative approaches. To fill this gap, the study sheds light on the success of Instagram for microbusinesses (IMB) in an Arab country and highlights the need for more investigation in order to understand this complex phenomenon. In this study, the authors use a qualitative approach to 27 microbusiness cases that adopted Instagram for s-commerce. They use technological innovation theories to successfully identify and classify the drivers and inhibitors of success under different contexts. Hence, they find that the success of IMB in Kuwait is contingent on addressing different technological, organizational, and environmental challenges. Further, they find that Instagram initiatives are still evolving and still need assistance from different stakeholders to overcome several hurdles. This study provides different recommendations that advance the theory and practice.