This summary is provided by the IPR Behavioral Insights Research Center.
Dr. Mengyu Li, Dr. Gaofei Li, and Dr. Sijia Yang examined how expert posts and posts by the general public on social media can help reduce the spread of COVID-19 misinformation.
An online experiment of 873 people was conducted in August 2022. Participants viewed misleading TikTok videos that claimed COVID-19 vaccines caused infertility and then watched correction videos directly after.
Key findings include:
1.) Citizen-contributed debunking videos were largely effective at countering misinformation, regardless of the source or persuasive strategies used.
2.) Videos created by medical professionals tended to receive more engagement (e.g. likes, comments, shares) compared to those made by people without professional knowledge.
– Medical TikTokers were more effective in capturing attention and correcting misperceptions.
3.) Results showed that high-tempo background music enhanced the effectiveness of expert debunking videos to a greater degree than testimonial videos done by the general public.
See the original article here.
