Atad Erga, David Yossi
Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, Reichman University, Herzliya 4610101, Israel.
School of Communication, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2024 Aug 3;14(8):673. doi: 10.3390/bs14080673.
This study examines the effect of one of three sources of information: a politician (authority figure), a physician (expert), and an ordinary person (non-expert) who appeared in a personal story related to a controversial issue (COVID-19 vaccination) on Facebook, on the willingness to engage with it. Using a between-subjects experiment (N = 848) conducted among Israeli adults (18 and older), we found a higher likelihood of sharing the story in interpersonal conversations than in other types of communications, regardless of the source that appeared in the story. However, respondents with high levels of institutional trust preferred sharing a politician's story, while conspiracy believers tended to comment on an ordinary person's story. The findings of the different patterns of communication behavior among conspiracy believers and people with high trust in political institutes contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the spread of misinformation in the digital age and during times of crisis.
本研究考察了三种信息来源之一（即出现在脸书上与一个有争议问题（新冠疫苗接种）相关的个人故事中的政治家（权威人物）、医生（专家）和普通人（非专家））对人们参与该故事意愿的影响。我们在以色列成年人（18岁及以上）中进行了一项组间实验（N = 848），发现无论故事中出现的信息来源是什么，在人际对话中分享该故事的可能性都高于其他类型的交流方式。然而，机构信任度高的受访者更倾向于分享政治家的故事，而阴谋论者则倾向于评论普通人的故事。阴谋论者和对政治机构高度信任者之间不同的交流行为模式研究结果，有助于我们理解数字时代和危机时期错误信息传播背后的机制。
