COVID-19 fake news among the general population: motives, sociodemographic, attitude/behavior and impacts – a systematic review

Balakrishnan, Vimala; Rahman, None Luqman Hakim Abdul; Tan, None Jia Kai; Lee, Yee Sin

doi:10.1108/oir-02-2022-0082

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…The results indicate that FI negatively moderates the mediation process, reflecting FI's complex roles in China's health misinformation setting. Compared with the extensive literature regarding health misinformation sharing among the general population amidst COVID-19 (Balakrishnan et al, 2022), this study offers empirical evidence about health misinformation dissemination among a specific age group in normal settings. The findings additionally shed light on online health misinformation regulation in aging societies such as China.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding health misinformation sharing among the middle-aged or above in China: roles of social media health information seeking, misperceptions and information processing predispositions

Tang¹,

Luo²,

Su³

2023

OIR

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PurposeThe ballooning health misinformation on social media raises grave concerns. Drawing upon the S-O-R (Stimulus-Organism-Response) model and the information processing literature, this study aims to explore (1) how social media health information seeking (S) affects health misinformation sharing intention (R) through the channel of health misperceptions (O) and (2) whether the mediation process would be contingent upon different information processing predispositions.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from a survey comprising 388 respondents from the Chinese middle-aged or above group, one of China's most susceptible populations to health misinformation. Standard multiple linear regression models and the PROCESS Macro were adopted to examine the direct effect and the moderated mediation model.FindingsResults bolstered the S-O-R-based mechanism, in which health misperceptions mediated social media health information seeking's effect on health misinformation sharing intention. As an indicator of analytical information processing, need for cognition (NFC) failed to moderate the mediation process. Contrarily, faith in intuition (FI), an indicator reflecting intuitive information processing, served as a significant moderator. The positive association between social media health information seeking and misperceptions was stronger among respondents with low FI.Originality/valueThis study sheds light on health misinformation sharing research by bridging health information seeking, information internalization and information sharing. Moreover, the authors extended the S-O-R model by integrating information processing predispositions, which differs this study from previous literature and advances the extant understanding of how information processing styles work in the face of online health misinformation. The particular age group and the Chinese context further inform context-specific implications regarding online health misinformation regulation.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2023-0157.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding health misinformation sharing among the middle-aged or above in China: roles of social media health information seeking, misperceptions and information processing predispositions

Tang¹,

Luo²,

Su³

2023

OIR

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“…For example, false news stories about the safety of vaccines have been shown to negatively impact vaccination rates, resulting in serious public health consequences (Wilson and Wiysonge, 2020). Researchers have examined the impacts of fake news during the COVID-19 pandemic, revealing negative impacts of fake news dissemination that include violation of precautionary measures and low trust in government and news (Balakrishnan et al ., 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Employing face reading technology to study the effects of the fake news' message sidedness on consumers' emotional valence and arousal

Toder Alon,

Tahar

2023

OIR

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PurposeThis study aims to investigate how message sidedness affects the impact of fake news posted on social media on consumers' emotional responses.Design/methodology/approachThe study involves a face-tracking experiment in which 198 participants were exposed to different fake news messages concerning the COVID-19 vaccine. Specifically, participants were exposed to fake news using (1) a one-sided negative fake news message in which the message was entirely unfavorable and (2) a two-sided fake news message in which the negative message was mixed with favorable information. Noldus FaceReader 7, an automatic facial expression recognition system, was used to recognize participants' emotions as they read fake news. The authors sampled 17,450 observations of participants' emotional responses.FindingsThe results provide evidence of the significant influence of message sidedness on consumers' emotional valence and arousal. Specifically, two-sided fake news positively influences emotional valence, while one-sided fake news positively influences emotional arousal.Originality/valueThe current study demonstrates that research on fake news posted on social media may particularly benefit from insights regarding the potential but often overlooked importance of strategic design choices in fake news messages and their impact on consumers' emotional responses.

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“…Especially as they have not been subject to the same type of historical trauma and economic deprivation as many of the other socio-economic and cultural groupings involved. Some research has argued that the conspiracy community is made up of rural uneducated people with low socio-economic status (Balakrishnan et al, 2023). However, this over-generalisation is generally considered to be factually incorrect, instead, Bloom & Moskalenko (2021) found that an individual's socio-economic position is not a consistent predictor of conspiracy beliefs.…”

Section: Personal Strainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Us vs. Them: A Subcultural Analysis of Violent Extremism within New Zealand’s Telegram Conspiracy Community

Varty

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<p><strong>This research explores violent extremism during the COVID-19 pandemic within Aotearoa New Zealand’s conspiracy community. Previous academic research has identified the conspiracy community on Telegram as an emerging locus for extremism. However, there has been no Telegram-specific research focusing on violent extremism within the conspiracy subculture in New Zealand. To address this literature gap, I conducted digital ethnographic research, collecting and analysing content (n = 12,000) from a major conspiracy channel within New Zealand’s Telegram ecosystem. My research focused on the prevalent conspiracy narratives, the push and pull factors driving community involvement, and how the community’s subcultural dynamics and rhetoric foster violent extremism. This research found anti-authority narratives to be a central feature of New Zealand’s conspiracy community. Furthermore, I identified the nuanced interplay between the push drivers: existential fear, identity strain, negative emotions, status frustration, socio-economic precarity, and the pull drivers: community, existential meaning, and hope that drove continuous engagement with the conspiracy community. The group’s subcultural dynamics encouraged the adoption of various norms and beliefs, including the rejection of traditional sources of knowledge, immersion in conspiracy narratives, adopting a conspiratorial worldview, anti-authority beliefs, and a zero-sum us-versus-them mindset. Founded on these beliefs, many members of the conspiracy community tacitly accepted, encouraged, and engaged in extremist and violent extremist rhetoric. Furthermore, a small subset of the conspiracy community is evidenced to have adopted a violent extremist worldview, coming to view coercive violence against the government as urgent and necessary. This thesis concludes that the normalisation of violent rhetoric within the conspiracy community fostered an online environment highly conducive to anti-authority politically motivated violent extremism. This research provides an understanding of why individuals engage in conspiracy communities and how their involvement can foster violent extremism, contributing to an understanding of emerging extremist threats within New Zealand to inform policy responses and future academic research.</strong></p>

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COVID-19 fake news among the general population: motives, sociodemographic, attitude/behavior and impacts – a systematic review

Cited by 9 publications

References 62 publications

Understanding health misinformation sharing among the middle-aged or above in China: roles of social media health information seeking, misperceptions and information processing predispositions

Understanding health misinformation sharing among the middle-aged or above in China: roles of social media health information seeking, misperceptions and information processing predispositions

Employing face reading technology to study the effects of the fake news' message sidedness on consumers' emotional valence and arousal

Us vs. Them: A Subcultural Analysis of Violent Extremism within New Zealand’s Telegram Conspiracy Community

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