Factors influencing correction upon exposure to health misinformation on social media: the moderating role of active social media use

Abstract

Purpose

The proliferation of health misinformation on social media has increasingly engaged scholarly interest. This research examines the determinants influencing users’ proactive correction of health misinformation, a crucial strategy in combatting health misbeliefs. Grounded in the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this research investigates how factors including issue involvement, information literacy and active social media use impact health misinformation recognition and intention to correct it.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 413 social media users finished a national online questionnaire. SPSS 26.0, AMOS 21.0 and PROCESS Macro 4.1 were used to address the research hypotheses and questions.

Findings

Results indicated that issue involvement and information literacy both contribute to health misinformation correction intention (HMCI), while misinformation recognition acts as a mediator between information literacy and HMCI. Moreover, active social media use moderated the influence of information literacy on HMCI.

Originality/value

This study not only extends the ELM into the research domain of correcting health misinformation on social media but also enriches the perspective of individual fact-checking intention research by incorporating dimensions of users’ motivation, capability and behavioral patterns.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-09-2023-0505

Citation

Sun, M. and Dong, X. (2024), "Factors influencing correction upon exposure to health misinformation on social media: the moderating role of active social media use", Online Information Review, Vol. 48 No. 7, pp. 1313-1330. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-09-2023-0505