TY - JOUR
T1 - What If Unmotivated Is More Dangerous? The Motivation-Contingent Effectiveness of Misinformation Correction on Social Media
AU - Yang, Fan
AU - Overton, Holly
N1 - Funding Information:
This project was supported by a Page Legacy Scholar Grant from The Arthur W. Page Center at Pennsylvania State University’s College of Communications. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pennsylvania State University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 (Fan Yang and Holly Overton). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd). Available at http://ijoc.org.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This study examines the effect of misinformation correction on social media, contingent on the motivational factors heightened by social media when users are strongly opinionated. A 2 (uncertainty: low vs. high) × 2 (risk: low vs. high) × 2 (personal relevance: low vs. high) × 2 (attitudinal congruence with correction: incongruent vs. congruent) pretest and posttest factorial online experiment of 973 U.S. participants was conducted to examine the effectiveness of correction while controlling for misinformation source credibility. Findings suggest that correction is effective in decreasing social media users’ perceived credibility and sharing intention toward misinformation even when they are polarized on the issue of the misinformation. Interestingly, while this study confirms previous literature that users are biased toward proattitudinal correction sources than counterattitudinal ones, misinformation correction is also significantly more effective in decreasing perceived credibility and sharing intention when users are motivated by the personal relevance, uncertainty, and risks associated with the misinformation.
AB - This study examines the effect of misinformation correction on social media, contingent on the motivational factors heightened by social media when users are strongly opinionated. A 2 (uncertainty: low vs. high) × 2 (risk: low vs. high) × 2 (personal relevance: low vs. high) × 2 (attitudinal congruence with correction: incongruent vs. congruent) pretest and posttest factorial online experiment of 973 U.S. participants was conducted to examine the effectiveness of correction while controlling for misinformation source credibility. Findings suggest that correction is effective in decreasing social media users’ perceived credibility and sharing intention toward misinformation even when they are polarized on the issue of the misinformation. Interestingly, while this study confirms previous literature that users are biased toward proattitudinal correction sources than counterattitudinal ones, misinformation correction is also significantly more effective in decreasing perceived credibility and sharing intention when users are motivated by the personal relevance, uncertainty, and risks associated with the misinformation.
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M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85125040229
SN - 1932-8036
VL - 16
SP - 740
EP - 766
JO - International Journal of Communication
JF - International Journal of Communication
ER -