Department of Journalism and Creative Media, The University of Alabama.
Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong.
Health Commun. 2023 Oct;38(9):1780-1792. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2022.2031452. Epub 2022 Jan 27.
This study tested whether a simple fact-checking label on Twitter effectively reduces vaccine conspiracy beliefs, misinformation engagement intentions, and vaccination intentions. A web-based experiment ( = 206) of adults living in the United States through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) was conducted for the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine in March 2020. The results showed that the fact-checking label attached to the conspiratorial misinformation post significantly reduced MMR vaccine conspiracy beliefs compared to the no fact-checking (misinformation-only) condition but did not directly affect MMR misinformation engagement intentions and MMR vaccination intentions. In addition, we found that the fact-checking label effectively decreased vaccine conspiracy beliefs and misinformation engagement intentions for those whose prior favorable attitudes toward MMR vaccination were relatively low. Based on our findings, we suggest that public health professionals and health communicators use the fact-checking label as a promising tool for countering conspiracy theories about vaccination. However, they should further seek alternative ways to limit the public's engagement in misinformation-related activities on social media and promote health protective behavioral intentions, given the limited effects of fact-checking labels.
本研究旨在测试在 Twitter 上添加一个简单的事实核查标签是否能有效减少疫苗阴谋论信念、错误信息参与意图和接种意愿。本研究于 2020 年 3 月通过亚马逊 Mechanical Turk (MTurk) 在美国进行了一项针对麻疹、腮腺炎和风疹 (MMR) 疫苗的成年人网络实验（n = 206）。结果表明，与没有事实核查（仅提供错误信息）的情况相比，在具有阴谋论错误信息的帖子上添加事实核查标签可显著降低 MMR 疫苗的阴谋论信念，但不会直接影响 MMR 错误信息参与意图和 MMR 疫苗接种意愿。此外，我们发现，对于那些对 MMR 疫苗接种的先前有利态度相对较低的人来说，事实核查标签可有效降低疫苗阴谋论信念和错误信息参与意图。基于这些发现，我们建议公共卫生专业人员和健康传播者将事实核查标签作为对抗疫苗阴谋论的一种有前途的工具。然而，鉴于事实核查标签的效果有限，他们应该进一步寻求其他方法来限制公众在社交媒体上参与与错误信息相关的活动，并促进健康保护行为意图。
