ABSTRACT

Despite the fact that scientific evidence has repeatedly affirmed the safety of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, unconfirmed stories on social media that allege the vaccine is harmful has led to vaccination refusal, which drastically hampers immunization rates. Although social media makes it easy for the spread of misinformation, these platforms are also suitable for misinformation correction. The current study employs an experimental design to 1) test theory-based correction messages using loss- vs. gain-frames, to combat misinformation online in the context of Facebook, 2) extend the effects of correction messages from misperceptions to behavioral intentions, and 3) examine the conditional effects of reflection which is one of the most important variables for information processing. Our findings demonstrated that individuals with low reflection had lower misperceptions about the vaccine when exposed to loss-framed messages. However, exposure to loss- or gain-framed messages did not seem to differ the misperceptions for individuals with high reflection. Additionally, our findings showed that loss-framing elicited lower information seeking intention among individuals with low reflection. Implications are discussed.

摘要

尽管科学证据一再证实人乳头瘤病毒 (HPV) 疫苗的安全性，但社交媒体上声称该疫苗有害的未经证实的报道导致疫苗接种被拒绝，这极大地影响了免疫接种率。尽管社交媒体使错误信息的传播变得容易，但这些平台也适用于错误信息的纠正。目前的研究采用实验设计来 1) 使用损失与增益框架测试基于理论的纠正信息，以在 Facebook 的背景下打击在线错误信息，2) 将纠正信息的影响从误解扩展到行为意图，以及3) 检查反射的条件效应，反射是信息处理最重要的变量之一。我们的研究结果表明，当接触到丢失框架的信息时，低反射的个体对疫苗的误解较低。然而，暴露于失去或获得框架的信息似乎并没有改变对高反射个体的误解。此外，我们的研究结果表明，损失框架在低反射个体中引发了较低的信息寻求意图。讨论了影响。