Behavioural Practice, Behavioural Practice, Kantar Public UK, 4 Millbank, London, SW1P 3JA, UK.
Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, Bailrigg, LA1 4YL, Lancaster, UK.
Sci Rep. 2023 Apr 8;13(1):5780. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-32962-1.
Misinformation can have a profound detrimental impact on populations' wellbeing. In this large UK-based online experiment (n = 2430), we assessed the performance of false tag and inoculation interventions in protecting against different forms of misinformation ('variants'). While previous experiments have used perception- or intention-based outcome measures, we presented participants with real-life misinformation posts in a social media platform simulation and measured their engagement, a more ecologically valid approach. Our pre-registered mixed-effects models indicated that both interventions reduced engagement with misinformation, but inoculation was most effective. However, random differences analysis revealed that the protection conferred by inoculation differed across posts. Moderation analysis indicated that immunity provided by inoculation is robust to variation in individuals' cognitive reflection. This study provides novel evidence on the general effectiveness of inoculation interventions over false tags, social media platforms' current approach. Given inoculation's effect heterogeneity, a concert of interventions will likely be required for future safeguarding efforts.
错误信息会对民众的健康产生深远的负面影响。在这项英国大型在线实验中（n=2430），我们评估了虚假标签和接种干预措施在防范不同形式错误信息（“变体”）方面的效果。虽然之前的实验使用了基于感知或意图的结果衡量标准，但我们在社交媒体平台模拟中向参与者展示了真实的错误信息帖子，并衡量了他们的参与度，这是一种更符合生态的方法。我们预先注册的混合效应模型表明，这两种干预措施都减少了对错误信息的参与，但接种的效果最为显著。然而，随机差异分析表明，接种所提供的保护在不同的帖子中有所不同。调节分析表明，接种提供的免疫力对个体认知反射的变化具有很强的稳健性。这项研究提供了关于接种干预措施相对于虚假标签、社交媒体平台当前方法的一般有效性的新证据。鉴于接种的效果存在异质性，未来的保护工作可能需要一系列干预措施的协同作用。
