15 research outputs found
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The Fake News Phenomenon: Impact of Heuristic Cues on Perceived Credibility and Sharing on Social Media
The growing global health threat of vaccine hesitancy is believed to be fueled by anti-vaccine movements around the world. Overall, the strong presence of anti-vaccination groups on the Internet, particularly social media, are important for bringing attention and attracting people to the cause. Such platforms are an ideal medium for the dissemination of anti-vaccination ideas, which often entail the spread of false or “fake” news and information questioning vaccine efficacy and safety. As this epidemic of online fake news is causing major disruptions in vaccine programs around the world, the current study employed the Heuristic Systematic model (HSM) to elucidate the effect of certain “heuristic cues” on the credibility and the subsequent sharing of anti-vaccination fake news on social media. The study is a 3 (attitude: pro-vaccine vs. anti-vaccine vs. neutral towards vaccine) ? 3 (emotion: anger vs. fear vs. control) ? 2 (social endorsements: low vs. high) between-subjects factorial design (N = 656). It was found that pro-vaccine individuals found the fake news content to be less credible than neutral or anti-vaccine individuals. Further, fear for anti-vaccine individuals lead to higher credibility perceptions (compared to anger condition), and at the same, led them to report higher self-expression motivation to share fake news (compared to anger and control condition). Anger for neutral individuals lowered credibility perceptions (compared to neutral condition), however, led to higher self-expression motivation to share fake news (compared to fear condition). In these emotional conditions for neutral and anti-vaccine individuals, a high (compared to a low) number of Facebook “likes” led to increased status-seeking motivation to share the fake news. Finally, it was found that while anger and self-expression motivation do not have a significant effect on sharing intention, both fear and status-seeking motivation significantly increase the intention to share anti-vaccination fake news. Theoretical implications are discussed in light of motivated reasoning and social influence for main effects, while interaction effects are discussed in light of media effects on implicit and explicit attitudes. Practical implications are also discussed as possible improvements to current interventions aimed at curbing the fake news issue, such as those focusing on ‘information immunization’, fake news flagging, and media literacy.</p
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Measuring attitude toward the ad: A test of using arbitrary scales and "p < .05" criterion
Attitude toward the ad is an important construct frequently measured in advertising and marketing research. However, it is somewhat ambiguous in regard to how to quantify attitude toward the ad with a numerical scale. This study examines the practice and effect of using arbitrary scales when measuring attitude toward the ad (i.e., 1-5, 1-7, 1-9, 0-10, and 0-100). A longitudinal experiment with thousands of adult participants (Time 1:n = 2,366, Time 2:n = 1,165) was conducted. The experimental results revealed that different scales, in general, will lead to consistent findings, but if the conventionalp < .05 criterion is used, the study conclusion may differ. Based on these findings, theoretical discussions and practical recommendations are provided
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Fewer people, more flames: How pre-existing beliefs and volume of negative comments impact online news readers’ verbal aggression
•This study tests the mechanism and specific circumstances of flaming.•People tend to flame when their viewpoint is challenged by a news article with few negative comments.•The flaming effect is mediated by negative emotions people experience when reading a news article.
In recent years, scholars have documented an increase in flaming behavior, which refers to a strong and hostile expression of emotions and feelings online. In order to identify the mechanism and specific circumstances of flaming, this study employed emotional contagion as the main theoretical framework and conducted a 2 (argument presented in a news article: support gun control vs. against gun control) × 2 (volume of negative comments: small vs. large) × 2 (news readers’ pre-existing beliefs: support gun control vs. against gun control) between-subjects experiment. Participants were asked to read an online news article about a gun-related topic as well as negative reader comments before they wrote a comment of their own. The experimental results showed that participants were more likely to use swear words in their comments when their viewpoint was diametrically opposed to the argument presented in the news article and when the article was accompanied by a low volume of negative comments. This interaction effect was mediated by negative emotions that participants experienced when reading the article and its associated comments. These findings have theoretical implications for future research pertaining to the identification of online circumstances and causes that could help mitigate the occurrence of flaming
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The effects of emotions, individual attitudes towards vaccination, and social endorsements on perceived fake news credibility and sharing motivations
In recent times, the spread of false or "fake" anti-vaccination news and information on social media has been linked to the global rise of vaccine hesitancy, resulting in increased vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks. As such, the current study employed the Heuristic Systematic Model (HSM) to elucidate the effect of certain cognitive heuristics on the perceived credibility and sharing motivations of fake anti-vaccination news on social media. The study used a 3 (emotion: anger vs. fear vs. neutral) x 3 (attitude: pro-vaccine vs. anti-vaccine vs. neutral) x 2 (social endorsements: low vs. high) between-subjects factorial design (N = 656). Two-way interaction effects were found between emotion and attitude on both perceived credibility of fake news and selfexpression motivation to share the news. A three-way interaction effect was also found between emotion, attitude, and social endorsements on status-seeking motivation to share the news. These findings reveal consistent evidence that fear motivates anti-vaccine individuals to believe in and share fake news, while anger motivates people who are neutral towards vaccines to do so. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed
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Can We Stop the Spread of False Information on Vaccination? How Online Comments on Vaccination News Affect Readers’ Credibility Assessments and Sharing Behaviors
This study used a 2 (type of news: fake vs. real) × 2 (presence of negative user comments: yes vs. no) × 2 (presence of positive user comments: yes vs. no) between-subjects experimental design to examine the differences in perceived news credibility and sharing intention between fake news and real news on vaccination. Fake news was found to generate a lower level of perceived credibility than real news, which subsequently decreased news sharing intention. Furthermore, negative user comments significantly lowered perceived news credibility, and this was especially true for real news. However, this adverse effect was found to be mitigated by the presence of positive user comments. The experimental results have important theoretical and practical implications for future research on fake news about health and science
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Barriers to Enacting Childhood Sun Safety Behavior: Findings from Focus Group Interviews Among Hispanic Parents in Miami
Hispanics are generally diagnosed at more advanced stages of melanoma than non-Hispanic Whites, leading to lower survival rates. As skin cancer incidence is attributable to lifetime exposure to ultraviolet light, encouraging the performance of sun safety behaviors in childhood is an important strategy to address this divide. Problematically, we know little about the barriers to sun safety among Hispanic youth, especially among the Hispanics living in South Florida. To address this gap, we conducted focus groups among parents of Hispanic children aged 4-10 to understand the unique barriers to sun protection among this audience. Results revealed four categories of barriers: child-based barriers, external barriers, parental enactment barriers, and parental proper adherence barriers. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for future intervention research among this audience
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Fake news on Facebook: examining the impact of heuristic cues on perceived credibility and sharing intention
Purpose As the epidemic of online fake news is causing major concerns in contexts such as politics and public health, the current study aimed to elucidate the effect of certain "heuristic cues," or key contextual features, which may increase belief in the credibility and the subsequent sharing of online fake news. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a 2 (news veracity: real vs fake) x 2 (social endorsements: low Facebook "likes" vs high Facebook "likes") between-subjects experimental design (N = 239). Findings The analysis revealed that a high number of Facebook "likes" accompanying fake news increased the perceived credibility of the material compared to a low number of "likes." In addition, the mediation results indicated that increased perceptions of news credibility may create a situation in which readers feel that it is necessary to cognitively elaborate on the information present in the news, and this active processing finally leads to sharing. Practical implications The results from this study help explicate what drives increased belief and sharing of fake news and can aid in refining interventions aimed at combating fake news for both communities and organizations. Originality/value The current study expands upon existing literature, linking the use of social endorsements to perceived credibility of fake news and information, and sheds light on the causal mechanisms through which people make the decision to share news articles on social media
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Sharing news with online friends: A study of network homophily, network size, and news type
•This study examines how network structure affects news sharing on social media.•Fake news tends to be shared within a homogeneous network.•Real news is most likely to be shared within a homogeneous and small network.•Gratification factors explain why people share news information on social media.•The results of this study support the general proposition of network flow model.
To examine within what kind of social network and with what motivation people tend to share news with their Facebook friends, a 2 (network homophily: high vs. low) × 2 (network size: large vs. small) × 2 (news type: real vs. fake) between-subjects experiment (N = 366) was conducted. The experimental results suggested that network homophily positively influenced news sharing intention, regardless of news type. Furthermore, network size moderated the relationship between network homophily and news sharing intention, but only for real news. Finally, three motivation factors, including socializing, information seeking, and status seeking, were found to be significant mediators to explain this news sharing behavior
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