Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
Department of Communication, University of California Davis, Davis, CA, United States.
J Med Internet Res. 2022 Sep 20;24(9):e38944. doi: 10.2196/38944.
Social media is widely used as a source of news and information regarding COVID-19. However, the abundance of misinformation on social media platforms has raised concerns regarding the spreading infodemic. Accordingly, many have questioned the utility and impact of social media news use on users' engagement with (mis)information.
This study offers a conceptual framework for how social media news use influences COVID-19 misinformation engagement. More specifically, we examined how news consumption on social media leads to COVID-19 misinformation sharing by inducing belief in such misinformation. We further explored if the effects of social media news use on COVID-19 misinformation engagement depend on individual differences in cognition and personality traits.
We used data from an online survey panel administered by a survey agency (Qualtrics) in Singapore. The survey was conducted in March 2022, and 500 respondents answered the survey. All participants were older than 21 years and provided consent before taking part in the study. We used linear regression, mediation, and moderated mediation analyses to explore the proposed relationships between social media news use, cognitive ability, personality traits, and COVID-19 misinformation belief and sharing intentions.
The results suggested that those who frequently used social media for news consumption were more likely to believe COVID-19 misinformation and share it on social media. Further probing the mechanism suggested that social media news use translated into sharing intent via the perceived accuracy of misinformation. Simply put, social media news users shared COVID-19 misinformation because they believed it to be accurate. We also found that those with high levels of extraversion than those with low levels were more likely to perceive the misinformation to be accurate and share it. Those with high levels of neuroticism and openness than those with low levels were also likely to perceive the misinformation to be accurate. Finally, it was observed that personality traits did not significantly influence misinformation sharing at higher levels of cognitive ability, but low cognitive users largely drove misinformation sharing across personality traits.
The reliance on social media platforms for news consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified, with dire consequences for misinformation sharing. This study shows that increased social media news consumption is associated with believing and sharing COVID-19 misinformation, with low cognitive users being the most vulnerable. We offer recommendations to newsmakers, social media moderators, and policymakers toward efforts in limiting COVID-19 misinformation propagation and safeguarding citizens.
社交媒体被广泛用作与 COVID-19 相关的新闻和信息来源。然而，社交媒体平台上大量的错误信息引起了人们对信息泛滥的担忧。因此，许多人质疑社交媒体新闻使用对用户接触（错误）信息的效用和影响。
本研究提出了一个概念框架，说明社交媒体新闻使用如何影响 COVID-19 错误信息的参与。更具体地说，我们研究了社交媒体新闻消费如何通过诱导对错误信息的信任，导致 COVID-19 错误信息的共享。我们还探讨了社交媒体新闻使用对 COVID-19 错误信息参与的影响是否取决于认知和个性特征的个体差异。
我们使用了由一家调查机构（Qualtrics）在新加坡进行的在线调查小组的数据。该调查于 2022 年 3 月进行，有 500 名受访者回答了调查。所有参与者年龄均大于 21 岁，并在参与研究前表示同意。我们使用线性回归、中介和调节中介分析来探讨社交媒体新闻使用、认知能力、个性特征与 COVID-19 错误信息信仰和分享意图之间的拟议关系。
结果表明，那些经常使用社交媒体获取新闻的人更有可能相信 COVID-19 错误信息，并在社交媒体上分享它。进一步探究机制表明，社交媒体新闻使用通过感知错误信息的准确性转化为分享意图。简单地说，社交媒体新闻用户分享 COVID-19 错误信息是因为他们认为它是准确的。我们还发现，与低外向性的人相比，那些高外向性的人更有可能认为错误信息是准确的，并分享它。与低神经质和开放性的人相比，那些高神经质和开放性的人也更有可能认为错误信息是准确的。最后，我们发现，个性特征在认知能力较高的情况下，对错误信息的分享没有显著影响，但低认知能力的用户在很大程度上推动了个性特征的错误信息分享。
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，人们对社交媒体平台新闻消费的依赖加剧，错误信息的传播后果严重。本研究表明，增加社交媒体新闻消费与相信和分享 COVID-19 错误信息有关，而低认知能力的用户是最脆弱的。我们向新闻发布者、社交媒体审核员和政策制定者提出建议，努力限制 COVID-19 错误信息的传播，保护公民。
