Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242, USA.
Department of Communication Studies, University of Georgia, Athens 30602, USA.
J Public Health (Oxf). 2024 Aug 25;46(3):430-436. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdae050.
In May 2020, news outlets reported misinformation about the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) related to COVID-19. Correcting misinformation about outbreaks and politics is particularly challenging. Affective belief echoes continue to influence audiences even after successful correction. Narrative and emotional flow scholarship suggest that a narrative corrective with a positive ending could reduce belief echoes. Therefore, this study investigated the efficacy of a narrative corrective with a relief ending for correcting misinformation about the CDC.
Between 29 May and 4 June 2020, we tested the effectiveness of a narrative to correct this misinformation. Participants in the United States (N = 469) were enrolled via Qualtrics panels in an online message experiment and randomized to receive a narrative corrective, a didactic corrective or no corrective.
The narrative corrective resulted in lower endorsement of the misinformation compared with the control and the didactic corrective. The narrative corrective had a positive indirect effect on perceived CDC competence and mask wearing intentions for politically moderate and conservative participants via relief.
Public health institutions, such as the CDC, should consider utilizing narrative messaging with positive emotion endings to correct misinformation. Narratives better address affective belief echoes, particularly for counter-attitudinal audiences.
2020 年 5 月，新闻媒体报道了与疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）有关的 COVID-19 错误信息。纠正有关疫情和政治的错误信息尤其具有挑战性。即使成功纠正后，情感共鸣仍会继续影响受众。叙事和情感流动研究表明，带有积极结局的叙事纠正可能会减少信念共鸣。因此，本研究调查了带有缓解结局的叙事纠正对纠正有关疾病预防控制中心的错误信息的效果。
在 2020 年 5 月 29 日至 6 月 4 日期间，我们测试了一个叙事来纠正这种错误信息的有效性。通过 Qualtrics 面板在美国招募的参与者（N=469）参与了在线信息实验，并随机分配接受叙事纠正、说教式纠正或无纠正。
与对照组和说教式纠正相比，叙事纠正导致对错误信息的认可程度降低。叙事纠正对政治温和和保守的参与者的感知 CDC 能力和戴口罩意愿产生了积极的间接影响，其通过缓解发挥作用。
疾病预防控制中心等公共卫生机构应考虑利用带有积极情感结局的叙事信息来纠正错误信息。叙事可以更好地解决情感共鸣问题，特别是对于与自己观点相左的受众。
