Craig Michael, Vijaykumar Santosh
Northumbria University, UK.
Soc Media Soc. 2023 Apr 17;9(2):20563051231161298. doi: 10.1177/20563051231161298. eCollection 2023 Apr-Jun.
The World Health Organization (WHO) released a series of mythbuster infographics to combat misinformation during the COVID-19 infodemic. While the corrective effects of such debunking interventions have typically been examined in the immediate aftermath of intervention delivery; the durability of these corrective effects and their resilience against subsequent misinformation remains poorly understood. To this end, we asked younger and older adults to rate the truthfulness and credibility of 10 statements containing misinformation about common COVID-19 myths, as well as their willingness to share the statements through social media. They did this three times, before and after experimental interventions within a single study session. In keeping with established findings, exposure to the WHO's myth-busting infographics-(a) improved participants' ratings of the misinformation statements as untruthful and uncredible and (b) reduced their reported willingness to share the statements. However, within-subject data revealed these beneficial effects were diminished if corrective information was presented shortly by misinformation, but the effects remained when further corrective information was presented. Throughout the study, younger adults rated the misinformation statements as more truthful and credible and were more willing to share them. Our data reveal that the benefit of COVID-19 debunking interventions may be short-lived if followed shortly by misinformation. Still, the effect can be maintained in the presence of further corrective information. These outcomes provide insights into the effectiveness and durability of corrective information and can influence strategies for tackling health-related misinformation, especially in younger adults.
世界卫生组织（WHO）发布了一系列辟谣信息图表，以应对新冠疫情期间的错误信息传播。虽然此类辟谣干预措施的纠正效果通常在干预实施后立即进行考察，但这些纠正效果的持续性以及它们对后续错误信息的抵御能力仍鲜为人知。为此，我们让年轻人和年长者对10条包含关于常见新冠谣言错误信息的陈述的真实性和可信度进行评分，并询问他们是否愿意通过社交媒体分享这些陈述。在单次研究环节的实验干预前后，他们进行了三次这样的评分。与既定研究结果一致，接触世卫组织的辟谣信息图表：（a）提高了参与者对错误信息陈述不真实和不可信的评分；（b）降低了他们报告的分享这些陈述的意愿。然而，个体内部数据显示，如果纠正信息在错误信息之后不久呈现，这些有益效果会减弱，但当进一步呈现纠正信息时，效果仍然存在。在整个研究过程中，年轻人认为错误信息陈述更真实、更可信，并且更愿意分享它们。我们的数据表明，如果在错误信息之后不久进行新冠辟谣干预，其益处可能是短暂的。不过，在有进一步纠正信息的情况下，效果可以维持。这些结果为纠正信息的有效性和持续性提供了见解，并可影响应对与健康相关错误信息的策略，尤其是针对年轻人的策略。
