research-article

Deterring the spread of misinformation on social network sites: a social cognitive theory-guided intervention

Authors:

Sei-Ching Joanna Sin,

Yin-Leng Theng,

Chei Sian LeeAuthors Info & Claims

ASIST '15: Proceedings of the 78th ASIS&T Annual Meeting: Information Science with Impact: Research in and for the Community

Article No.: 95, Pages 1 - 4

Published: 06 November 2015 Publication History

Abstract

As more individuals turn to social network sites (SNSs) for information, the spread of misinformation in these sites is becoming a greater concern. Not only can misinformation cause individual users anxiety and harm, but it can also prevent SNSs from realizing their full potential as trustworthy sources of information. This study proposed and tested an intervention-based strategy that was designed to discourage behavior that promotes the spread of misinformation. Guided by the social cognitive theory (SCT), the intervention sought to modify users' outcome expectations by presenting them with a message that highlighted the negative consequences of misinformation. To investigate the effectiveness of this intervention message, a classical experiment was conducted on-line with 131 college-student participants. In the study's experimental group, the ANOVA results showed that the intervention effectively reduced the total number of "Likes" and "Shares" for postings that provided misinformation. Future development and testing of this SCT-guided, outcome-expectations-based intervention is promising.

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Cited By

Almaliki M(2019)Online Misinformation SpreadProceedings of the 2019 3rd International Conference on Information System and Data Mining10.1145/3325917.3325938(171-178)Online publication date: 6-Apr-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3325917.3325938
Pal AChua A(2016)Reviewing the landscape of research on the threats to the quality of user-generated contentProceedings of the 79th ASIS&T Annual Meeting: Creating Knowledge, Enhancing Lives through Information & Technology10.5555/3017447.3017524(1-9)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3017447.3017524

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Deterring the spread of misinformation on social network sites: A social cognitive theory‐guided intervention
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As more individuals turn to social network sites (SNSs) for information, the spread of misinformation in these sites is becoming a greater concern. Not only can misinformation cause individual users anxiety and harm, but it can also prevent SNSs ...
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cover image DL Hosted proceedings

ASIST '15: Proceedings of the 78th ASIS&T Annual Meeting: Information Science with Impact: Research in and for the Community

November 2015

812 pages

ISBN:087715547X

Conference Chair:
Lisa M. Given

Publisher

American Society for Information Science

United States

Publication History

Published: 06 November 2015

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ASIST '15

ASIST '15: Research in and for the Community

November 6 - 10, 2015

Missouri, St. Louis

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Overall Acceptance Rate 135 of 277 submissions, 49%

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Cited By

Almaliki M(2019)Online Misinformation SpreadProceedings of the 2019 3rd International Conference on Information System and Data Mining10.1145/3325917.3325938(171-178)Online publication date: 6-Apr-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3325917.3325938
Pal AChua A(2016)Reviewing the landscape of research on the threats to the quality of user-generated contentProceedings of the 79th ASIS&T Annual Meeting: Creating Knowledge, Enhancing Lives through Information & Technology10.5555/3017447.3017524(1-9)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3017447.3017524

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