ABSTRACT

The goal of this research was to study how fear-arousing misinformation (FAM) elicits a backfire effect of web add-on correction and whether situational fear and situational threat appraisals intervene in the relationship. The study featured an online experiment (N = 167) with a 2 (misinformation: fear-neutral vs. fear-arousal) × 2 (presence of correction: no correction vs. web add-on correction) between-group factorial design. Results suggest that web add-on correction was effective in decreasing situational susceptibility when fear-neutral misinformation was displayed (but not when FAM was presented) and that this susceptibility is positively associated with belief in misinformation. The findings from this research highlight that emotional-laden misinformation and perceived susceptibility are key drivers of nullifying correction effects, thereby providing insight into mapping out strategies for mitigating persuasive effects misinformation in risky situations.

摘要

本研究的目的是研究引起恐惧的错误信息 (FAM) 如何引起网络附加校正的适得其反的效果，以及情境恐惧和情境威胁评估是否会干预这种关系。该研究以在线实验为特色（N = 167），组间因子设计为 2（错误信息：恐惧中性与恐惧唤醒）×2（存在校正：无校正与网络附加校正）。结果表明，当显示恐惧中性错误信息时（但不是在呈现 FAM 时），网络附加校正可有效降低情境敏感性，并且这种敏感性与对错误信息的信念呈正相关。这项研究的结果强调，充满情绪的错误信息和感知的易感性是消除纠正效果的关键驱动因素，从而为制定策略以减轻风险情况下的说服力错误信息提供了见解。