Department of Online Communication, School of Journalism and Communication, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China.
Department of Communication, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 May 21;18(11):5505. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18115505.
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.
虽然 2019 年冠状病毒病(COVID-19)疫情正在全球蔓延,但由于媒体内容在网络上缺乏谨慎的新闻判断,错误信息开始迅速传播,并在社交媒体上影响公众舆论。这项定量研究旨在通过提出并检验一个基于“预期影响力影响”视角的理论模型,推进先前的错误信息研究。这项研究在美国(N=1793)和中国(N=504)的参与者中分别进行了两项调查研究,以检验预期影响力影响理论的适用性。结果表明,愤怒和焦虑显著预测了对他人错误信息的感知影响;对他人的预期影响积极影响了在美国和中国的纠正和限制行动中的公众支持。此外,对错误信息的愤怒导致美国和中国的公众愿意自我纠正。相比之下,焦虑仅在美国促进了公众对限制行动的支持。本研究在美国和中国进行了调查研究,将预期影响力影响(IPI)假说扩展到西方和非西方背景下的数字错误信息。本研究为社交媒体公司和政策制定者提供了应对网络错误信息的启示。