The Presumed Influence of COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media: Survey Research from Two Countries in the Global Health Crisis

Abstract

While the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is spreading all over the world, misinformation, without prudent journalistic judgments of media content online, has begun circulating rapidly and influencing public opinion on social media. This quantitative study intends to advance the previous misinformation research by proposing and examining a theoretical model following an “influence of presumed influence” perspective. Two survey studies were conducted on participants located in the United States (N = 1793) and China (N = 504), respectively, to test the applicability of the influence of presumed influence theory. Results indicated that anger and anxiety significantly predicted perceived influence of misinformation on others; presumed influence on others positively affected public support in corrective and restrictive actions in both U.S. and China. Further, anger toward misinformation led to public willingness to self-correct in the U.S. and China. In contrast, anxiety only took effects in facilitating public support for restrictive actions in the U.S. This study conducted survey research in China and the U.S. to expand the influence of presumed influence (IPI) hypothesis to digital misinformation in both Western and non-Western contexts. This research provides implications for social media companies and policy makers to combat misinformation online.

Increased anxiety from fear of Omicron in China as compared to North America and Western Europe: A cross-sectional Kendall’s tau-b analysis using the generalized anxiety disorder 7-item questionnaire

“…Admittedly, participants’ mindsets toward the pandemic might differ due to different cultures ( 50 ). But in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in today’s advanced technological society, media outlets have been seen as useful means of spreading information about COVID-19 and measuring public attention toward COVID-19 in both China and the Western countries ( 37 – 39 , 51 , 52 ). Online COVID-19 infodemic (i.e., pandemic of misinformation), without prudent journalistic judgments of media content, could be easily and quickly disseminated and thus influence public opinions ( 39 ), therefore resulting in deadly consequences ( 51 , 52 ).…”

“…But in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in today’s advanced technological society, media outlets have been seen as useful means of spreading information about COVID-19 and measuring public attention toward COVID-19 in both China and the Western countries ( 37 – 39 , 51 , 52 ). Online COVID-19 infodemic (i.e., pandemic of misinformation), without prudent journalistic judgments of media content, could be easily and quickly disseminated and thus influence public opinions ( 39 ), therefore resulting in deadly consequences ( 51 , 52 ). In addition, as we mentioned in the Introduction section, Chinese people’s perceptions toward COVID-19 could largely rely on the propagation of information of COVID-19 through media outlets, in comparison with the residents in North America and Western Europe, where a virus co-existence policy with relatively few restrictions to the public resulted in a great number of people being affected with COVID-19; but meanwhile, these people were thus allowed to have an actual experience of how long-term COVID-19 impacts their body, rather than only acquiring relevant information via media reports.…”

Analysis of Digital Literacy in Health through Active University Teaching

“…The need for this paradigm change has become increasingly urgent due to the exceptional global consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health promotion programs need to offer a wide variety of quality digital resources to search for health-related scientific knowledge, as well as training in the critical quality analysis of information sources [ 38 ]. Accordingly, websites should be designed and created to provide quality resources and adequate information on quality digital sources that allow students to improve their learning in the field of eHealth.…”

The Impact of CSR Perceptions on Employees’ Turnover Intention during the COVID-19 Crisis in China

“…To test our hypotheses (see Figure 1 ), we conducted an online survey study. To enroll employees from large organizations (with more than 250 employees) [ 66 ] located in China, the researchers made use of the professional survey company Sojump, whose national panel contains 2 million members [ 67 ]. Upon approval from the ethics committee, we conducted a pretest in early February 2020 with 133 employees working in large organizations.…”