Journal article
Understanding the spread of COVID-19 misinformation on social media: The effects of topics and a political leader's nudge
Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Vol.73(5), pp.726-737
05/2022
DOI: 10.1002/asi.24576
PMCID: PMC8653058
PMID: 34901312
Abstract
The spread of misinformation on social media has become a major societal issue during recent years. In this work, we used the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as a case study to systematically investigate factors associated with the spread of multi-topic misinformation related to one event on social media based on the heuristic-systematic model. Among factors related to systematic processing of information, we discovered that the topics of a misinformation story matter, with conspiracy theories being the most likely to be retweeted. As for factors related to heuristic processing of information, such as when citizens look up to their leaders during such a crisis, our results demonstrated that behaviors of a political leader, former US President Donald J. Trump, may have nudged people's sharing of COVID-19 misinformation. Outcomes of this study help social media platform and users better understand and prevent the spread of misinformation on social media.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Understanding the spread of COVID-19 misinformation on social media: The effects of topics and a political leader's nudge
- Creators
- Xiangyu Wang - University of IowaMin Zhang - University of IowaWeiguo Fan - University of IowaKang Zhao - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Vol.73(5), pp.726-737
- DOI
- 10.1002/asi.24576
- PMID
- 34901312
- PMCID
- PMC8653058
- NLM abbreviation
- J Assoc Inf Sci Technol
- ISSN
- 2330-1635
- eISSN
- 2330-1643
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/2022
- Academic Unit
- Business Analytics
- Record Identifier
- 9984380379602771
Metrics
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