Ku Kelly Y L, Li Jiarui, Luo Yueming, Song Yunya
Department of Education and Psychology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China.
School of Journalism and Communication, Guangxi University, Nanning, China.
Health Educ Res. 2025 Mar 24;40(2). doi: 10.1093/her/cyaf009.
The rapid spread of health misinformation on social media poses significant challenges to public health crisis. Mpox misinformation has portrayed it as exclusively a sexually transmitted infection, resulting in misperceptions about infection risk and stigmatization of affected groups. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of different correction approaches and message framing in reducing misperception and shaping disease-related attitudes, both immediately after exposure and after a 1-day delay. We employed a 2 × 2 design with a control group to test correction approaches (fact-based vs. logic-based) combined with hashtag framing (health literacy vs. inclusivity) through an experiment (N = 274). Findings showed that all corrections reduced misperception both immediately and after 1 day and increased the likelihood of sharing corrective messages. Only corrections with inclusivity hashtags promoted more positive attitudes towards Mpox immediately after exposure. Stereotypes played a significant moderating role where participants with stronger stereotypes showed a greater reduction in misperception when exposed to corrections with inclusivity hashtags but were less likely to share logic-based corrective message. These findings contributed to understanding effective health communication by highlighting the role of social media hashtags in message framing, promoting user sharing of corrective information, and addressing stereotypes when designing interventions against health misinformation.
健康错误信息在社交媒体上的迅速传播给公共卫生危机带来了重大挑战。猴痘错误信息将其描述为一种仅通过性传播的感染，导致对感染风险的误解以及对受影响群体的污名化。本研究旨在评估不同纠正方法和信息框架在接触后立即以及延迟1天后减少误解和塑造与疾病相关态度方面的有效性。我们采用2×2设计并设置一个对照组，通过一项实验（N = 274）来测试纠正方法（基于事实与基于逻辑）与主题标签框架（健康素养与包容性）的组合。研究结果表明，所有纠正措施在接触后立即和1天后都减少了误解，并增加了分享纠正信息的可能性。只有带有包容性主题标签的纠正措施在接触后立即促进了对猴痘更积极的态度。刻板印象起到了显著的调节作用，即具有较强刻板印象的参与者在接触带有包容性主题标签的纠正信息时，误解减少得更多，但分享基于逻辑的纠正信息的可能性较小。这些发现通过强调社交媒体主题标签在信息框架中的作用、促进用户分享纠正信息以及在设计针对健康错误信息的干预措施时应对刻板印象，有助于理解有效的健康传播。
