Abstract
Do emotions we experience after reading headlines help us discern true from false information or cloud our judgement? Understanding whether emotions are associated with distinguishing truth from fiction and sharing information has implications for interventions designed to curb the spread of misinformation. Among 1,341 Facebook users in Nigeria, we find that emotions—specifically happiness and surprise—are associated with greater belief in and sharing of false, relative to true, COVID-19 headlines. Respondents who are older are more reflective, and do not support the ruling party are better at discerning true from false COVID-19 information.
Highlights
Are emotions experienced by respondents correlated with their belief in, reading, and sharing of COVID-19 misinformation?
Using a survey of 1,341 Facebook users in Nigeria, we assess whether emotional reactions are associated with belief in COVID-19 headlines, information seeking, and sharing intentions
We find that happiness and surprise are associated with worse discernment and greater sharing of false, relative to true, headlines. This departure from existing work could be due to differing samples, since most of the empirical literature comes from WEIRD populations,4 and/or the fact that our study focuses on COVID-19 information
Summary
Are emotions experienced by respondents correlated with their belief in, reading, and sharing of COVID-19 misinformation?. Using a survey of 1,341 Facebook users in Nigeria, we assess whether emotional reactions are associated with belief in COVID-19 headlines, information seeking, and sharing intentions. After viewing true and false COVID-19-related headlines, respondents reported what emotions, if any, they experienced. We assess how emotions correlate with our three outcomes of interest: i) belief about the accuracy of the headline, ii) interest in clicking to read, and iii) sharing intentions. Respondents are more likely to believe, want to read and share headlines (regardless of veracity) when they feel any emotion. Emotional responses are associated with worse truth discernment and the ability to distinguish true from false headlines when assessing belief (but not reading or sharing). Interventions to improve discernment of COVID-19 information should target youth, those who rely on intuition, and ruling party supporters in Nigeria
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