“Masks do not work”: COVID-19 misperceptions and theory-driven corrective strategies on Facebook
ISSN: 1468-4527
Article publication date: 2 November 2022
Issue publication date: 29 August 2023
Abstract
Purpose
One of the most prolific areas of misinformation research is examining corrective strategies in messaging. The main purposes of the current study are to examine the effects of (1) partisan media (2) credibility perceptions and emotional reactions and (3) theory driven corrective messages on people's misperceptions about COVID-19 mask wearing behaviors.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a randomized experimental design to test the hypotheses. The data were collected via the survey firm Lucid. The number of participants was 485. The study was conducted using Qualtrics after the research project was exempt by the Institutional Research Board of a large University in the US. The authors conducted an online experiment with four conditions, narrative versus statistics and individual versus collective. The manipulation messages were constructed as screenshots from Facebook.
Findings
The findings of this study show that higher exposure to liberal media was associated with lower misperceptions, whereas higher credibility perceptions of and positive reactions toward the misinformation post and negative emotions toward the correction comment were associated with higher misperceptions. Moreover, the findings showed that participants in the narrative and collective-frame condition had the lowest misperceptions.
Originality/value
The authors tested theory driven misinformation corrective messages to understand the impact of these messages and multiple related variables on misperceptions about COVID-19 mask wearing. This study contributes to the existing misinformation correction literature by investigating the explanatory power of the two well-established media effects theories on misinformation correction messaging and by identifying essential individual characteristics that should be considered when evaluating how misperceptions about the COVID-19 crisis works and gets reduced.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2021-0600
Keywords
Citation
Borah, P., Kim, S. and Hsu, Y.-C.(L). (2023), "“Masks do not work”: COVID-19 misperceptions and theory-driven corrective strategies on Facebook", Online Information Review, Vol. 47 No. 5, pp. 880-905. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-11-2021-0600
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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