Evaluating the Impact of Attempts to Correct Health Misinformation on Social Media: A Meta-Analysis.
Health Commun
; 36(13): 1776-1784, 2021 11.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-708470
ABSTRACT
Social media poses a threat to public health by facilitating the spread of misinformation. At the same time, however, social media offers a promising avenue to stem the distribution of false claims - as evidenced by real-time corrections, crowdsourced fact-checking, and algorithmic tagging. Despite the growing attempts to correct misinformation on social media, there is still considerable ambiguity regarding the ability to effectively ameliorate the negative impact of false messages. To address this gap, the current study uses a meta-analysis to evaluate the relative impact of social media interventions designed to correct health-related misinformation (k = 24; N = 6,086). Additionally, the meta-analysis introduces theory-driven moderators that help delineate the effectiveness of social media interventions. The mean effect size of attempts to correct misinformation on social media was positive and significant (d = 0.40, 95% CI [0.25, 0.55], p =.0005) and a publication bias could not be excluded. Interventions were more effective in cases where participants were involved with the health topic, as well as when misinformation was distributed by news organizations (vs. peers) and debunked by experts (vs. non-experts). The findings of this meta-analysis can be used not only to depict the current state of the literature but also to prescribe specific recommendations to better address the proliferation of health misinformation on social media.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Social Media
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Reviews
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Health Commun
Journal subject:
Health Services Research
/
Health Services
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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