The impact of emotional vs rational message framing on social media users' detection and sharing of misinformation: an experimental study
| Date | 25 June 2024 |
| Pages | 321-330 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-10-2023-0124 |
| Published date | 25 June 2024 |
| Author | Arman Miri,Akram Karimi-Shahanjarin,Maryam Afshari,Leili Tapak,Saeed Bashirian |
The impact of emotional vs
rational message framing on social
media users’detection and
sharing of misinformation: an
experimental study
Arman Miri,Akram Karimi-Shahanjarin and Maryam Afshari
Department of Public Health, School of Public Health,
Hamadan University of MedicalSciences, Hamadan, Iran, and
Leili Tapak and Saeed Bashirian
School of Public Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to investigate the impact of message framing (emotional vs rational) on social media
users’ability to accurately detect informationa ndtheir 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 informationand intention to share messages were assessed.
Findings –The results showedasignificant multivariateeffect of message framing on boththe 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 significantmain 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 werenot statistically significant (p¼0.098).
Originality/value –The findings highlightthe 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 shouldstrengthen the content review mechanism, with an emphasison screening content with
high emotionalarousal.
Keywords Misinformation, Message framing, Social media, Information sharing, COVID-19
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The term “infodemic”was created by the World Health Organization to describe the problem
of widespread misinformation during the pandemic. This problem has arisen due to the
significantincrease in misinformation causedby the spread of COVID-19 (Organization, 2020).
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.
Emotional vs
rational
message
framing
321
Received2 October 2023
Revised13 April 2024
Accepted11 May 2024
Journalof Information,
Communicationand Ethics in
Society
Vol.22 No. 3, 2024
pp. 321-330
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-10-2023-0124
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1477-996X.htm
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