Sadness, Risk Direction, and Correction of Health Misinformation: Effects on Beliefs and Sharing Intentions

Area of Science:

• Health communication
• Psychology of misinformation
• Social influence

Background:

• Health misinformation poses a significant public health challenge.
• Understanding how emotional states and message framing affect correction efficacy is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the combined effects of sadness and the risk direction (increasing vs. decreasing) of corrective messages on responses to health misinformation.
• To examine how these factors influence belief in misinformation and sharing intentions.

Main Methods:

• An online experiment involving 797 U.S. adults.
• Participants were exposed to health misinformation, induced into either a neutral or sad emotional state, and then received a text-only correction.
• The correction messages varied in risk direction: risk-increasing (e-cigarette) versus risk-decreasing (mRNA vaccine).

Main Results:

• Corrective messages generally reduced belief in misinformation and sharing intentions.
• Sadness did not have a main effect but interacted with risk direction.
• Sadness amplified belief reduction for risk-increasing misinformation but attenuated it for risk-decreasing misinformation.

Conclusions:

• The risk direction of corrective messages is a key structural property influencing their effectiveness.
• Sadness can either support or undermine corrections depending on how risk is framed.
• Emotional states and message framing are critical considerations for designing effective health misinformation interventions.