The impact of emotional vs rational message framing on social media users' detection and sharing of misinformation: an experimental study
Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society
ISSN: 1477-996X
Article publication date: 25 June 2024
Issue publication date: 9 October 2024
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impact of message framing (emotional vs rational) on social media users' ability to accurately detect information and their intention to share messages about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an experimental design approach, the authors recruited 600 adult participants via a crowdsourcing platform. Participants were randomly assigned to receive emotional or rational messages and their ability to accurately detect information and intention to share messages were assessed.
Findings
The results showed a significant multivariate effect of message framing on both the detection of accurate information and intention to share (p < 0.001). Participants who received emotional messages demonstrated better performance in the detection and sharing task than those who received rational messages. Gender and age also had significant main effects on the outcomes, with women performing better than men and younger participants performing better than older participants in detecting the accuracy of information. The interaction effects of the independent variables were not statistically significant (p = 0.098).
Originality/value
The findings highlight the importance of considering emotional factors in combating the spread of messages about the COVID-19 vaccine on social media. Practitioners responsible for social media content should strengthen the content review mechanism, with an emphasis on screening content with high emotional arousal.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the participants who contributed to this study.
Funding: This work was supported by the Hamadan University of Medical Sciences under Grant number 14010123265 and Iran National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant number 4006151.
Declaration of interest: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Disclosure statement: The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.
Citation
Miri, A., Karimi-Shahanjarin, A., Afshari, M., Tapak, L. and Bashirian, S. (2024), "The impact of emotional vs rational message framing on social media users' detection and sharing of misinformation: an experimental study", Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 321-330. https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-10-2023-0124
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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