Measuring the (lack of) quality of disinformation.

BackgroundDespite a declining trend in new HIV diagnoses, late diagnosis remains prevalent, potentially due to reduced HIV risk visibility and stigma. Media play a pivotal role in disseminating accurate information,...

We explore the discourse on climate change across multiple social media platforms, examining the evolution of user engagement with climate-related content and whether this content links to reliable or unreliable news media sources. Through a detailed examination of over 20 million posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube over five years (2018–2022), we identify trends in engagement, distinguishing between unreliable and reliable content to assess the impact of misinformation. Further, we investigate the relationships among various discussion topics and their association with information quality, employing a network-based method to quantify the semantic distances between these categories. Our findings reveal diverse trends in engagement that align with global events, suggesting that social media discussions promptly reflect the resonance of real life events concerning climate change such as COP26, the Climate Action Week and climate strikes associated with the Fridays for Future movement. Notably, despite the lower volume of content linking to unreliable sources, we observe significantly greater relative engagement with these sources compared to content from reliable sources on all platforms except Twitter. This highlights a persistent challenge in the online discourse surrounding climate misinformation.

As a way to bypass the need for the many iterations of individual experiences required for trial and error learning, humans and several non-human animal species have evolved a capacity to rely on information provided by others. Non-human animals typically learn from conspecifics through stimulus enhancement or emulation learning, using the same tools a conspecific used to obtain the same goal or trying to replicate the outcome of certain behavior. Human children on the other hand do not just focus on the outcome when learning from others. They pay a lot of attention to the teacher and the teaching process, draw inferences from ostensive cues, and try to replicate actions faithfully with a focus not just on what is demonstrated but also how. This high-fidelity in reliance on socially conveyed information gives rise to human cumulative culture and appears to be unique in the animal kingdom. However, it can also lead to biases, as can be seen in children’s tendency to overimitate demonstrated behavior, even if it is not instrumental in obtaining a certain result. In the domain of testimony, we also find these apparent artefacts of children’s credulity in their reliance on others. Children will sometimes reproduce testimony by an adult even if the reliability of this testimony is questionable. However, children are not always this gullible. In fact, much research has demonstrated preschoolers’ selective trust in some sources over others, based on several distinct features of these sources. An area that has received considerably coverage in recent developmental research is children’s inferences from past verbal utterances as an estimate of future reliability of the same source of testimony. While the phenomenon is well documented, less is known about its cognitive underpinnings and early development. How do children generally treat testimony from an unreliable informant? Do they always encode testimony from reliable and unreliable sources differently? Are differences in learning from reliable and unreliable speakers influenced by the extent to which these speakers cohere or contradict each other? And to what extent do toddlers rely on the same strategies as preschoolers? Or do they simply learn less in unusual or confusing situations? In this thesis, I try to discern under what circumstances and to what degree children will continue to rely on testimony from unreliable sources, what mechanisms underlie their selective trust in testimony and examine the early development of this ability. To address these issues, I conducted several experiments with 2- and 5-year-old children examining their trust in testimony using both eye-tracking and interactive measures. Whereas 5-year-olds demonstrated selective trust across a range of tasks and measures, 2-year-olds showed no evidence of selectively learning novel labels from the more reliable source. If the two speakers provided conflicting information, toddlers performed at chance level, rather than selectively endorsing the information by the more reliable source. However, in a follow-up study that presented the same word-learning demands, but not necessarily the need to consider the speakers’ respective reliability, 2-year-olds showed successful learning of novel labels. Thus, toddlers seemed to have struggled with making person-specific attribution of reliability rather than with the tasks’ word learning demands. 5-year-olds on the other hand are able to make person-specific inferences about the reliability of an informant and adjust their reliance according to the pragmatics of the situation. It appears that children are willing to learn even from a previously unreliable speaker, given that the information offered by her is not contradicted by a more reliable source. However, they do not simply discount accuracy information. Rather, in case contradictory testimony from a less unreliable source surfaces later on, 5-year-olds can still adjust their reliance and discount information from a demonstrably unreliable source. Taken together, I find that children do not generally encode information from reliable and unreliable sources differently, but they are also not gullible. My findings suggest that children’s selective learning of novel labels is not simply based on inattention towards the information provided by unreliable source, but rather on the selective encoding and consolidation of the semantic information provided by a more reliable source. At least at five years of age, human children make rational inferences about the reliability of sources. Even if they initially rely on questionable testimony with apparent credulity, these inferences let children adjust their reliance before deciding whether to reproduce such testimony. Infants likely rely on less demanding strategies than preschoolers to adjust their reliance on testimony from others, as they are not yet able to entertain person-specific inferences. In conclusion, children’s trust is testimony appears to be the result of opposing forces in form of attribution of reliability to particular sources of testimony on one hand and a credulity in reliance on socially conveyed information on the other hand.

Probability information content-based FCA concepts similarity computation method relies on the frequency of concepts in corpus, it takes only the occurrence probability as information content metric to compute FCA concept similarity, which leads to lower accuracy. This article introduces a semantic information content-based method for FCA concept similarity evaluation, in addition to the occurrence probability, it takes the superordinate and subordinate semantic relationship of concepts to measure information content, which makes the generic and specific degree of concepts more accurate. Then the semantic information content similarity can be calculated with the help of an ISA hierarchy which is derived from the domain ontology. The difference between this method and probability information content is that the evaluation of semantic information content is independent of corpus. Furthermore, semantic information content can be used for FCA concept similarity evaluation, and the weighted bipartite graph is also utilized to help improve the efficiency of the similarity evaluation. The experimental results show that this semantic information content based FCA concept similarity computation method improves the accuracy of probabilistic information content based method effectively without loss of time performance.

Patients and healthcare providers use online health information and social media (SM) platforms to seek medical information. As the incidence of cancer rises, the popularity of SM platforms has yielded widespread dissemination of incorrect or misleading information about it. In this study, we aimed to assess public knowledge about incorrect cancer information and how they perceive such information in Saudi Arabia. A nationwide survey was distributed in Saudi Arabia. The survey included questions on demographics, SM platform usage, and common misleading and incorrect cancer information. The sample (N = 3509, mean age 28.7 years) consisted of 70% females and 92.6% Saudi nationals. Most participants had no chronic illness. One-third were college graduates and less than one-quarter were unemployed. Differences in level of knowledge about cancer emerged in association with different demographic factors. Public trust in health information on SM also led to being misinformed about cancer, independent from educational level and other factors. Efforts should be made to rapidly correct this misinformation.

BackgroundPatients are increasingly looking to social media platforms for medical information.AimIn this study we aimed to evaluate the quality of information regarding premature ejaculation (PE) on TikTok.MethodsThe term “premature ejaculation” was searched on TikTok on a single day in May 2022. Videos were sorted by 3 reviewers as reliable or unreliable based on the accuracy of video content. Relevant user metrics were collected for each video, including the numbers of likes, shares, and followers, and the video length, source of upload, and speaker type. The quality of information was objectified with 2 validated tools, with mean scores obtained from the 3 reviewers, the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool (PEMAT) and the 5-point modified DISCERN instrument.OutcomesOutcomes were video reliability categorization, video and user metrics as described above, and video quality as quantified by PEMAT and DISCERN scores.ResultsEight videos were categorized as reliable and 32 videos were categorized as unreliable. The mean number of “likes” per video was higher in the reliable than in the unreliable group (1238 vs 126, P < .018). Accounts posting reliable videos had higher mean numbers of followers than those posting unreliable videos (55 050 vs 12 042, P = .025). The majority of unreliable videos (75%) vs reliable videos (12.5%) were posted by self-identified patients or individual users, whereas 62.5% of reliable videos vs versus 6.3% of unreliable videos were posted by individual physicians or physician groups. Few videos overall mentioned PE definition, indications for PE treatment, types of treatment, or value of psychological intervention (12.5%, 15%, 22.5%, and 5.0% of videos, respectively). Video length and number of shares did not differ between groups. Reliable videos had higher PEMAT (73.0 vs 45.1, P < .001) and DISCERN (2.7 vs 0, P < .001.) scores.Clinical implicationsThere exists a critical need for enhanced quality of medical information on social media platforms in hopes of encouraging patients with impaired sexual function to seek appropriate medical care.Strength and limitationsStrengths of this study include the objective use of validated quality assessment tools and a focus on TikTok as an emerging social media platform. Limitations include large numbers of excluded videos.ConclusionThe quality of available information regarding PE on TikTok is low, with a significant percentage of videos on this topic fraught with inaccuracies. Given TikTok’s prominence as a social media platform primarily geared toward younger audiences, we emphasize the need for improvement in the quality of information available regarding PE and its management.

<h2>Abstract</h2> Individuals commonly use the internet as a source of healthcare information. Clear aligner therapy (CAT) is frequently prescribed for the management of malocclusion. The aim of this review was to collate and synthesize the literature concerning the quality of information (QOI) regarding CAT on the internet. This scoping review was carried out in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. Eighteen studies were identified for inclusion following a systematic search of four databases and screening of publications by two independent reviewers. Most studies (<i>n</i> = 13) evaluated the QOI on social media platforms (SMPs) with five studies determining the QOI of website content. YouTube was the SMP through which relevant communicated information was most assessed. There was considerable variance in the methodologies employed to determine the QOI in the studies. The QOI related to CAT was generally poor-to-moderate on the internet. Poor QOI was a finding related to direct-to-consumer aligners. Details regarding high- and low-quality information were limited. Where documented, high-quality items included benefits of treatment and low-quality items included quality-of-life issues. Evaluation of content in the English language only was a self-reported limitation of the authors of many studies and therefore, a limitation of the present review. Several studies advised that clinicians should be aware of pertinent content communicated through SMPs.

This study investigates online health information sources and eHealth literacy among older adults and explores a model examining mediating health behavior factors on the relationship between eHealth literacy, physical well-being, and quality of life in seniors. A cross-sectional design was employed using a convenience sample of 502 Israeli seniors aged 65 and above. The questionnaire comprised five sections: background characteristics, eHealth Literacy, Older People’s Quality of Life, Health Behavior Inventory, and physical well-being. Seniors primarily used Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), general Google searches, and official government health websites for online health information. No significant differences were found in eHealth literacy levels between seniors who used reliable sources and those who used unreliable sources. Structural equation modeling revealed that higher eHealth literacy was associated with better use of health resources, adherence to healthy diets, and improved physical well-being and quality of life. These health behaviors partially mediated the relationship between eHealth literacy and well-being outcomes. While seniors use a mix of reliable and unreliable online health information sources, eHealth literacy levels do not significantly differ based on source reliability. Higher eHealth literacy predicts better health behaviors such as the appropriate use of health resources and adherence to healthy diets, which, in turn, lead to improved physical well-being and quality of life.

When presented with responses of another person, people incorporate these responses into memory reports: a finding termed memory conformity. Research on memory conformity in recognition reveals that people rely on external social cues to guide their memory responses when their own ability to respond is at chance. In this way, conforming to a reliable source boosts recognition performance but conforming to a random source does not impair it. In the present study we assessed whether people would conform indiscriminately to reliable and unreliable (random) sources when they are given the opportunity to exercise metamemory control over their responding by withholding answers in a recognition test. In Experiments 1 and 2, we found the pattern of memory conformity to reliable and unreliable sources in 2 variants of a free-report recognition test, yet at the same time the provision of external cues did not affect the rate of response withholding. In Experiment 3, we provided participants with initial feedback on their recognition decisions, facilitating the discrimination between the reliable and unreliable source. This led to the reduction of memory conformity to the unreliable source, and at the same time modulated metamemory decisions concerning response withholding: participants displayed metamemory conformity to the reliable source, volunteering more responses in their memory report, and metamemory resistance to the random source, withholding more responses from the memory report. Together, the results show how metamemory decisions dissociate various types of memory conformity and that memory and metamemory decisions can be independent of each other.

PurposeThis study aimed to analyze existing problems in the dissemination and management of emergency information on social media platforms, improve social media users' experience regarding such information, increase the efficiency of emergency information dissemination and curb the spread of misinformation.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the emergency information quality on social media platforms was examined. Based on the evaluation principles of the quality of mature information, social media information characteristics and the rules of emergency information dissemination, combined with relevant academic research results, an index to evaluate the quality of emergency information on social media was constructed. In addition, the authors have introduced cloud theory as an information quality evaluation method and used social media users' emotional characteristics to assess information quality evaluation results. A comprehensive system for evaluating emergency information quality, including indexes, methods and detection strategies was established. Based on a comprehensive system, a case study was conducted on the forest fires in Sichuan Province and the African swine fever events as reported on the Zhihu platform. In accordance with the results of the case study, the authors expanded the research and introduced the emotional characteristics of social media users as an independent evaluation dimension to evaluate the quality of emergency information on social media.FindingsThe comprehensive system's effectiveness was verified through the case study. Further, it was found that users' emotional characteristics (reflected in their information behavior) are inconsistent with their evaluation of websites' information quality regarding major emergencies. Integrating users' emotional characteristics into the information evaluation system can enhance its effectiveness following major emergencies.Originality/valueFirst, an evaluation index system of emergency information quality on social media about major emergencies was offered. Unlike the commonly available index system for information quality evaluation, this proposed evaluation index system not only accounted for the characteristics of social media, such as massive disordered information, multiple information sources and rapid dissemination, but also for the characteristics of emergency events, such as variability and the absence of precursors. This proposed evaluation index system enhances the pertinence of the information quality evaluation and compensates for the shortcoming that the current research only focuses on evaluating social media information quality in a broad context, but pays insufficient attention to major emergencies. Second, cloud theory was introduced as a method to evaluate the emergency information quality found on social media. Existing research has primarily included the use of traditional statistical methods, which cannot transform numerical values into qualitative concepts effectively. Various indeterminate factors inevitably affect the quality of emergency information on social media platforms, and the traditional methods cannot eliminate this uncertainty in the evaluation process. The method to assess emergency information quality based on cloud theory can effectively compensate for the gaps in the research and improve the accuracy of information quality assessment. Third, the inspection and the dynamic adjustment of assessment results are absent in the research on information quality assessment, and the research has relied principally on the information users' evaluation and has paid insufficient attention to their attitudes and behaviors toward information. Therefore, the authors incorporated users' emotional characteristics into the evaluation of emergency information quality on social media and used them to test the evaluation results so that the results of the information quality assessment not only include the users' explicit attitudes but also their implicit attitudes. This enhances the effectiveness of the information quality assessment system. Finally, through this case study, it was found that an inconsistency exists between user evaluation and user emotional characteristics after major emergencies. The reasons for this phenomenon were explained, and the necessity of integrating user emotional characteristics into information quality assessment was demonstrated. Based on this, the users' emotional characteristics were used as a separate evaluation dimension for assessing the quality of emergency information on social media. Compared with assessing the quality of general information, integrating the user's emotional characteristics into the evaluation index system can lead the evaluation results to include not only the users' cognitive evaluation but also their emotional experience, further enhancing their adaptability.

BACKGROUND Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has emerged as one of the most serious threats to global public health. The proliferation of social media platforms as digital channels for health information has facilitated the dissemination of personal experiences with antibiotic use, but some of this information may be misleading. Such misleading information may encourage the inappropriate use of antibiotics, thereby accelerating AMR. Despite growing concerns, there remains a significant gap in the literature regarding both the quality of information in these posts and the specific features that drive their popularity. OBJECTIVE Taking sore throat as a focal case, this study aims to achieve two primary objectives: (1) to systematically evaluate the informational quality of social media posts that share personal experiences with antibiotic treatment and (2) to quantitatively identify specific features associated with higher levels of audience engagement. METHODS The data were collected from a leading social media platform, Xiaohongshu, to conduct this study. Two clinical pharmacists assessed the appropriateness of the medication-related practices described in the posts and coded the relevant features, which are identified according to the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and the Health Belief Model (HBM). Negative binomial regression was employed to examine the effects of these features on user engagement, as measured by the number of likes and collections. RESULTS Among the 1061 posts analyzed, the overall quality of the antibiotic-related posts was worrisome. As many as 31.39% of the posts involved antibiotic use without clinical indication, and many displayed issues related to suboptimal drug selection and inappropriate dosing regimens. In examining features associated with post popularity, this study found that the presence of treatment information in post title (likes: incidence rate ratio (IRR)=1.65, P&lt;.001; collections: IRR=1.92, P&lt;.001), the use of a well-designed cover image (likes: IRR=1.43, P=.002; collections: IRR=1.67, P&lt;.001), and the inclusion of recovery outcome (likes: IRR=2.02, P&lt;.001; collections: IRR=2.28, P&lt;.001), detailed description (likes: IRR=2.08, P&lt;.001; collections: IRR=2.14, P&lt;.001), and advice (likes: IRR=1.78, P&lt;.001; collections: IRR=2.14, P&lt;.001) in the content were all significantly associated with increased user engagement. In addition, the imperative language and linguistic intensifier in post titles had different effects during the COVID-19 pandemic's peak and stable phases. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study indicate that the quality of personal antibiotic treatment experiences shared on social media is concerning. Furthermore, the study identified several post features that are associated with increased popularity in this context. The findings provide valuable insights for health authorities in developing more effective health promotion strategies.

Misinformation proliferation on social media platforms is a pervasive threat to the integrity of online public discourse. Genuine users, susceptible to others' influence, often unknowingly engage with, endorse, and re-share questionable pieces of information, collectively amplifying the spread of misinformation. In this study, we introduce an empirical framework to investigate users' susceptibility to influence when exposed to unreliable and reliable information sources. Leveraging two datasets on political and public health discussions on Twitter, we analyze the impact of exposure on the adoption of information sources, examining how the reliability of the source modulates this relationship. Our findings provide evidence that increased exposure augments the likelihood of adoption. Users tend to adopt low-credibility sources with fewer exposures than high-credibility sources, a trend that persists even among non-partisan users. Furthermore, the number of exposures needed for adoption varies based on the source credibility, with extreme ends of the spectrum (very high or low credibility) requiring fewer exposures for adoption. Additionally, we reveal that the adoption of information sources often mirrors users' prior exposure to sources with comparable credibility levels. Our research offers critical insights for mitigating the endorsement of misinformation by vulnerable users, offering a framework to study the dynamics of content exposure and adoption on social media platforms.

The deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap is currently one of the main options in breast reconstruction. The information about this surgery is critical for the patient, in order to choose the breast reconstruction method. Our study aims to analyze and compare the quality and accuracy of the information related to the DIEP flap reconstruction method provided by social media platforms (SMPs) and the new large language models (LLMs). A total of 50 videos in English and Spanish were selected from the main SMPs (YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook) using the keywords "DIEP flap" and "colgajo DIEP." The duration, number of likes, dislikes, number of visits, upload date, author, and the video category (institutional video, media, patient experience, academic, and surgery) were analyzed. 3 specific questions were asked to 2 new LLMs (ChatGPT and Google Bard). The quality of information in SMPs and LLMs was analyzed and compared by 2 independent board-certified plastic surgeons using the Journal of American Medical Association and DISCERN scales. LLMs showed a statistically significant higher quality of information when compared with SMPs based on the DISCERN scores. The average DISCERN scores for answers given by ChatGPT and Google Bard were 54 ± 6.841 and 61.17 ± 6.306, respectively (good quality). In SMPs, the average scores were 2.31 ± 0.67 (insufficient quality) and 32.87 ± 9.62 (low quality) for the Journal of American Medical Association and DISCERN scales respectively. Thirty-eight percent of the videos in SMPs were performed by nonmedical authors. The quality of information for breast reconstruction using DIEP flaps from LLMs was considered good and significantly better than in SMPs. The information found in SMPs was insufficient and of low quality. Academic plastic surgeons have an opportunity to provide quality content on this type of reconstruction in LLM and SMPs.

The study investigates the impact of misleading information on company trust and image on social media platforms. The study examines misleading information as an independent variable and company trust and company image as dependent variables, with company trust acting as a mediator to investigate the relationship between misleading information and company image. A questionnaire was distributed to 378 social media-active beauty and skincare customers, and hypotheses were tested using quantitative methods, including descriptive statistics, convergent validity, Cronbach alpha, discriminant validity, and fit model, along with a PLS-SEM path for hypothesis testing. The findings revealed that misleading information positively influenced both company trust and company image. Company trust positively affects company image. Additionally, misleading information has been shown to positively impact company image through company trust. The study advises that consumers should be cautious when using social media platforms for information and purchasing products, choose trustworthy companies, and avoid misleading information. Furthermore, the study suggests that companies should avoid unethical practices, as these can undermine trust, damage their reputation, reduce market competitiveness, and adversely influence customer perceptions and purchasing behavior.

Background Media play a pivotal role in disseminating accurate information, particularly regarding U=U (Undetectable = Untransmittable), to increase awareness and reduce stigma. This study analyses HIV Italian communication on Facebook and Instagram, with a focus on U=U evidence. Methods A mixed-method analysis examined posts on HIV, with linked articles, from Italian news sources from 01/2009 to 04/2023. News sources were categorised as “reliable” or “unreliable” using independent third-party classification. Topic analysis identified the main topics in the posts, while an inductive content analysis was conducted on linked articles regarding U=U. The language and the accuracy in explaining U=U was evaluated through a checklist. Results A total of 10,539 Facebook and 749 Instagram posts were analysed, with 716(7%) and 18(2%) from unreliable sources respectively. Reliable and unreliable content surged around World AIDS Day(WAD) on both platforms. On Facebook, the frequency of unreliable content increased over time, whereas on Instagram it was rare and recent. On Facebook, topics varied between reliable and unreliable sources. The 3 most frequent topics from reliable sources were WAD, voluntary HIV spread, and public figures with HIV; those from unreliable sources were Death and Migrant People; Luc Montagnier and COVID-19 Conspiracies; Public Figures with HIV. On Instagram, the first 3 topics were the Italian National Institute of Health and Prevention, WAD, and public figures with HIV. A total of 68 articles nominating U=U were found and analysed, revealing 4 main areas: U=U definition, Prevention, Impact on people living with HIV, and Stigma. The accuracy in explaining U=U was generally low, with 6 articles(8.8%) providing only a definition. Conclusions HIV communication in Italy is limited and centered around WAD, with persisting bias. The dissemination of the U=U evidence is lacking. Urgent action is needed to shift the narrative and emphasize this evidence Key messages • HIV communication in Italy is limited and concentrated around World AIDS day. • The U=U evidence is poorly disseminated, often providing only a definition and medical explanation.