ABSTRACT

As fake news continues to abound on the Internet, the need for theorizing on the impact of misinformation on individuals’ perceptions of various social issues is dire. Using the issue of vaccine negativity in the United States, this study proposes the idea of lacuna individuals as issue-specific active publics holding negative attitudes and having deficient issue-specific knowledge. Results reveal that knowledge-deficient, vaccine-negative individuals display higher levels of perceptions, motivations, and active communication behaviors about vaccines. Results, therefore, support the conceptualization of lacuna individuals, and publics, as knowledge-deficient activists holding high levels of negative attitudes.

摘要

随着互联网上假新闻的不断涌现，对错误信息对个人对各种社会问题的看法的影响进行理论化的需求已迫在眉睫。本研究使用美国的疫苗阴性问题，提出了将空缺者视为特定问题的活跃公众的想法，他们持消极态度并缺乏特定问题的知识。结果表明，知识不足，疫苗阴性的人对疫苗表现出更高的认知，动机和积极的交流行为。因此，结果支持将弱势群体个人和公众的概念化，因为他们是知识缺失的活动家，他们持有很高水平的负面态度。