Correct Message Research Articles

An experimental study of the effectiveness of fact checks: interplay of evidence type, veracity and news agreement

PurposeGiven the rapid growth in efforts on misinformation correction, the study aims to test how evidence type and veracity interact with news agreement on the effectiveness of fact-checking on how well a corrective message discount a false news information.Design/methodology/approachExperimental participants (N = 511) in Hong Kong were exposed to the same news article and then to a piece of corrective information debunking the news article with variation in the types of evidence (numerical vs narrative) and veracity (no verdict vs half false vs entirely false) in 2019.FindingsAmong the participants who disagreed with the news article, numerical fact-checking was more effective than narrative fact-checking in discounting the news article. Some evidence of the backfire effect was found among participants for whom the article was attitude incongruent.Originality/valueWhen debunking false information with people exposed to attitude-incongruent news, a milder verdict presented in the form of a half-false scale can prompt a more positive perception of the issue at stake than an entirely false scale, implying that a less certain verdict can help in mitigating the backfire effect compared to a certain verdict.

Potential Allergenicity of Plants Used in Allergological Communication: An Untapped Tool for Prevention.

Plants are often used to illustrate allergy-related medical products, services, patient information materials and news. The illustration of allergenic plants is an important tool in patient education, contributing to the prevention of pollinosis, as patients can recognize plants and avoid pollen exposure. In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the pictorial content of allergy-related websites depicting plants. A total of 562 different photographs depicting plants were collected using image search, identified and categorized according to their potential allergenicity. Of the total 124 plant taxa, 25% of plants were identified to the genus level and a further 68% were identified to the species level. Plants with low allergenicity were found in 85.4% of the pictures, while plants of high allergenicity were shown in only 4.5% of the pictorial information. Brassica napus was the most frequent species identified (8.9% of the overall identified plants), while blooming Prunoidae, Chrysanthemum spp. and Taraxacum officinale were also common. Considering both allergological and design aspects, some plant species have been proposed for more professional and responsible advertising. The internet has the potential to provide visual support for patient education in allergenic plants, but emphasis must be put on the transmission of the correct visual message.

Message matters: Correcting organisational fake news

Misinformation and fake news represent significant strategic and financial risks to organisations. To dispute or manage fake news, organisations are often compelled to respond. However, the most effective responses to organisational fake news are not well understood. Using an experimental design (N = 501), this research explored two common approaches organisations may employ when responding to fake news and examined their effects on consumer perceptions. Specifically, this research experimentally varied who delivers a correction to organisational fake news (i.e., correction source; CEO or Celebrity ambassador) and how the message is delivered (i.e., correction message; Factual or Narrative). The results indicated that consumer perceptions were not substantially altered when a correction was delivered by either the CEO or a Celebrity ambassador. However, corrections delivered using a narrative style were significantly more effective at enhancing consumer perceptions compared to factual corrections. Analyses indicated that the beneficial effects of a narrative corrective message on consumer perceptions was mediated by consumer's enhanced impressions of the source and message credibility. These findings suggest that organisations should develop risk management strategies that detail how corrections to fake news should be delivered to consumers, and particular attention should be devoted to the framing of the message.

“I Don’t Think That’s True, Bro!” Social Corrections of Misinformation in India

Fact-checks and corrections of falsehoods have emerged as effective ways to counter misinformation online. But in contexts with encrypted messaging applications (EMAs), corrections must necessarily emanate from peers. Are such social corrections effective? If so, how substantiated do corrective messages need to be? To answer these questions, we evaluate the effect of different types of social corrections on the persistence of misinformation in India ([Formula: see text]5,100). Using an online experiment, we show that social corrections substantially reduce beliefs in misinformation, including in beliefs deeply anchored in salient group identities. Importantly, these positive effects are not systematically attenuated by partisan motivated reasoning, highlighting a striking difference from Western contexts. We also find that the presence of a correction matters more relative to how sophisticated this correction is: substantiating a correction with a source only improves its effect in a minority of cases; besides, when social corrections are effective, citing a source does not drastically improve the size of their effect. These results have implications for both users and platforms and speak to countering misinformation in developing countries that rely on private messaging apps.

Plant-based food is unhealthy—that’s not true! How can corrective messages help promote plant-based menus in quick-service restaurants?

Purpose This study aims to identify effective ways to promote plant-based foods in quick-service restaurants by considering customers’ food-related health involvement. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted a 2 (message format: myth/fact or fact-only) × 2 (message focus: benefit- or attribute-focused) × 2 (health involvement: high or low) quasi-experimental design via a scenario-based online survey. A multivariate analysis of covariance and a bootstrapping approach were used to test the hypotheses (N = 365). Findings The results indicated that message format and focus jointly influenced customers’ perceived health consequences of plant-based foods and purchase intentions; customers’ health involvement altered the two-way interaction between message format and focus; and perceived health consequences mediated the effects of message format and focus as and customers’ health involvement on purchase intentions. Research limitations/implications This study identifies the effectiveness of message format and focus in promoting plant-based foods and extends the sustainable product promotion literature by using resource matching theory and the elaboration likelihood model. Future studies should use field studies to examine how can message framing influence customers’ actual behaviors when purchasing plant-based foods. Practical implications This study can help quick-service restaurants better promote plant-based foods considering message format and focus and customers’ food-related health involvement. Originality/value This is one of only a few studies that have tested how messages containing both negative and positive information about a product could help promote plant-based foods.

Event Message Clustering Algorithm for Selection of Majority Message in VANETs

The trustworthiness of nodes in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) is essential for disseminating truthful event messages. False messages may cause vehicles to behave in unintended ways, creating an unreliable transportation system. The efficiency and reliability of the transportation system can be obtained through trustworthy vehicular nodes providing correct event messages. In a VANET, the consensus issue can be resolved by employing blockchain. Even if we employ blockchain in a VANET, the trustworthiness of each message recorded needs to be verified separately since the blockchain itself does not guarantee the trust level of each event message. For instance, when there are multiple conflicting messages associated with a single accident on the road, a vote based on majority opinion can be considered one option for making a decision regarding the accident. In this work, we design the VANET event message clustering algorithm (VEMCA) to resolve the conflicting message problem. Furthermore, we develop a simulator for the VANET environment that demonstrates how the clustering algorithm can be used for event message validation. Experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art clustering algorithms in terms of accuracy, precision, recall, f1-score, and computational time.

Analyzing Hot Bugs in the Linux Kernel by Clustering Fixing Commit Messages

In system software environments, a vast amount of information circulates, making it crucial to utilize this information in order to enhance the operation of such systems. One such system is the Linux kernel, which not only boasts a completely open-source nature, but also provides a comprehensive history through its git repository. Here, every logical code change is accompanied by a message written by the developer in natural language. Within this expansive repository, our focus lies on error correction messages from fixing commits, as analyzing their text can help identify the most common types of errors. Building upon our previous works, this paper proposes the utilization of data analysis methods for this purpose. To achieve our objective, we explore various techniques for processing repository messages and employing automated methods to pinpoint the prevalent bugs within them. By calculating distances between vectorizations of bug fixing messages and grouping them into clusters, we can effectively categorize and isolate the most frequently occurring errors. Our approach is applied to multiple prominent parts within the Linux kernel, allowing for comprehensive results and insights into what is going on with bugs in different subsystems. As a result, we show a summary of bug fixes in such parts of the Linux kernel as kernel, sched, mm, net, irq, x86 and arm64.

Reduction of Fast Correction Messages of SBAS

Reduction of Fast Correction Messages of SBAS

Collateral damage from debunking mRNA vaccine misinformation.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the scientific community has been understandably eager to combat misinformation about issues such as vaccine safety. In highly polarized information environments, however, even well-intentioned messages have the potential to produce adverse effects. In this study, we connect different disciplinary strands of social science to derive and experimentally test the novel hypothesis that although particular efforts to debunk misinformation about mRNA vaccines will reduce relevant misperceptions about that technology, these correctives will harm attitudes toward other types of vaccines. We refer to this as the "collateral damage hypothesis." Our study specifically examines a corrective message stating that "mRNA vaccines do not contain live virus," and our results offer some support for our hypothesis, with the corrective triggering increased societal risk perceptions of live vaccines. We also find that the effect is, predictably, most evident among those whose vaccine acceptance is low. Building on the theoretical grounding we outline, we test a "damage control" adjustment to the corrective message and present evidence supporting that it mitigates the collateral damage.

Fakt i interpretacja w kontekście pytania o prawdę we współczesnym przekazie medialnym

The article aims to analyze two concepts that are extremely important in the media, i.e. “fact” and “interpretation” and their relationship with “truth.” Addressing this issue results primarily from the frequent use of the colloquial understanding of these concepts and building, based on them, fragile theories regarding the correct message in the media. To organize the argument, the article is divided into two parts, which are devoted to – based on logical and philosophical research and methodology derived from historical sciences – the analysis of the concept of “fact,” and then “interpretation.” In addition, these considerations are supplemented with an attempt to show how we can relate to facts and carry out an interpretation to obtain the most adequate reality and communicable message.

PECULIARITIES OF EPITHETS TRANSLATION IN THE ADVERTISING TEXTS FOR CHILDREN’S GOODS

The article deals with the peculiarities of epithets translation in the advertising texts for children’s goods which are determined by the necessity of correct manipulative intentional message rendering. Epithets are regarded by the authors of the article as actualizers of mass recipients’ manipulation targets which are used by text producers for necessary perlocutionary effect achieving. Human vital needs, some basic emotions and parental instinct are specified as basic mass recipients’ manipulation targets. The goal of the article is to reveal the main peculiarities of epithets translation in the advertising texts for children’s goods being the actualizers of certain manipulation targets. The article is relevant as studying of translation strategy of advertising texts from the point of view of their intentional equivalents on all the speech act levels is not widely studied yet.
 Background. Thorough level by level analysis of the manipulative speech acts of advertising texts is necessary for achieving equivalent and adequate variants of manipulative texts translations through revealing certain manipulation targets actualizers which are epithets.
 Purpose. Peculiarities of epithets translation in the texts of advertising goods for children are revealed and studied in the article. Epithets are regarded in the article as specific manipulation targets actualizers which function in the advertisements.
 Materials and methods. The material of the study is a bulk of the advertising texts for children’s goods which are posted on the official websites of these goods on the Internet. Intentional analysis and translation analysis of the text are used in the study.
 Results. As a result of the study the role of epithets as a significant means of actualizing certain mass recipient manipulation targets in the texts of advertising goods for children was proved. The results show that preservation of the translated advertising text content is achieved through using epithets which actualize the same targets of manipulation as in the original text: parental instinct, basic emotions and the anticipation of the social ideal realization. This preservation of intentional message in the texts under study becomes one of the main skills of a translator or interpreter.
 Practical implications. The results of the study can be used while teaching practice of translation in the universities and in the process of preparing recommendation on advertising texts translation.

Affective-motivational effects of performance feedback in computer-based assessment: Does error message complexity matter?

The impact of computer-based performance feedback on students’ affective-motivational state may be very different, depending on the positive or negative direction of the feedback message and its specific content. This experiment investigated whether more elaborated error messages improve students’ affective-motivational response to negative (i.e., corrective) feedback. We systematically varied the presence and complexity of corrective feedback messages (1 × 4 between-subjects design) and analyzed the effects of the provided feedback on students’ emotions, task-related perceived usefulness, and expectancy-value beliefs. University students (N = 439) worked on a low-stakes test with 12 constructed-response geometry tasks. They received either no feedback or different complexities of immediate corrective feedback after incorrect responses (i.e., Knowledge of Results [KR], Knowledge of Correct Response [KCR], or Elaborated Feedback [EF]), paired with immediate confirmatory KCR feedback after correct responses (i.e., confirming their response). Our data showed that students’ task-level performance moderated the emotional impact of feedback (i.e., beneficial effects after correct responses; detrimental effects after incorrect responses). Students’ performance further moderated several feedback effects on students’ expectancy-value beliefs. Regarding error message complexity, we found that students reported higher levels of positive emotions after receiving EF or KCR compared to KR, while only EF decreased students' level of negative emotions compared to KR and increased students' task-related perceived usefulness compared to all other groups. Overall, our results suggest that performance feedback is likely to improve students’ affective-motivational state when the feedback confirms a correct response. Moreover, when reporting an error, EF (or KCR messages) were more beneficial to affective-motivational outcomes than simple KR notifications.

Comparing button-based chatbots with webpages for presenting fact-checking results: A case study of health information

The unprecedented proliferation of online health misinformation poses a potential threat to public health. In recent times, several fact-checking organizations have adopted chatbots to present fact-checking results. However, it is unclear whether chatbots are more appropriate than traditional fact-checking websites for presenting these rigorous corrective messages. To answer this question, we compared a button-based chatbot with a traditional webpage for presenting fact-checking results. As fact-checkers’ expertise cues could influence users’ perception of fact-checking, we also considered the effect of expertise cues in our study. We conducted a 2 (interaction type: webpage vs. chatbot) × 2 (expertise cue: non-highlighted vs. highlighted) between-subjects online experiment (N=308). The results show that the chatbot leads to higher perceived ease of use, which in turn increases the effectiveness of fact-checking. The highlighted expertise cue tends to decrease users’ intention to use, especially when they interact with the webpage. Finally, we discuss the feasibility of using chatbots to disseminate fact-checking content and several design implications for the creation of an effective tool to fact-check health information.

Effect of comprehensive knowledge of HIV on risky sexual behaviours associated with HIV transmission among adult Ugandans: a propensity score-matched analysis

ObjectiveTo evaluate the effect of comprehensive knowledge of HIV on extramarital sexual relationships and consistent condom use.DesignQuasi-experimental study.Setting20 880 households, Uganda.ParticipantsMarried/cohabiting men and women, aged 15–54 years.MethodsWe applied propensity score-matched...

“Masks do not work”: COVID-19 misperceptions and theory-driven corrective strategies on Facebook

PurposeOne of the most prolific areas of misinformation research is examining corrective strategies in messaging. The main purposes of the current study are to examine the effects of (1) partisan media (2) credibility perceptions and emotional reactions and (3) theory driven corrective messages on people's misperceptions about COVID-19 mask wearing behaviors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a randomized experimental design to test the hypotheses. The data were collected via the survey firm Lucid. The number of participants was 485. The study was conducted using Qualtrics after the research project was exempt by the Institutional Research Board of a large University in the US. The authors conducted an online experiment with four conditions, narrative versus statistics and individual versus collective. The manipulation messages were constructed as screenshots from Facebook.FindingsThe findings of this study show that higher exposure to liberal media was associated with lower misperceptions, whereas higher credibility perceptions of and positive reactions toward the misinformation post and negative emotions toward the correction comment were associated with higher misperceptions. Moreover, the findings showed that participants in the narrative and collective-frame condition had the lowest misperceptions.Originality/valueThe authors tested theory driven misinformation corrective messages to understand the impact of these messages and multiple related variables on misperceptions about COVID-19 mask wearing. This study contributes to the existing misinformation correction literature by investigating the explanatory power of the two well-established media effects theories on misinformation correction messaging and by identifying essential individual characteristics that should be considered when evaluating how misperceptions about the COVID-19 crisis works and gets reduced.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2021-0600

Issue Importance and the Correction of Misinformation

ABSTRACT The study of misinformation – and its correction – has proliferated in recent years. Yet the empirical record includes instances where corrective messages do and do not work, even on similar issues. Despite intense scholarly attention to this topic, it remains unclear when people will revise false beliefs. Our study examines a factor with a long history in the study of public opinion: the importance a person attaches to an issue. The subjective state of issue importance has complex effects. It can increase an individual’s motivation to engage in effortful information processing while also leading them to defend existing beliefs and opinions. In a series of experiments administered in national surveys, we examine whether issue importance is implicated in the failure to correct false beliefs. The analyses show that on the topic of GM foods, the effects of a corrective message are smallest among misinformed people who rated the issue as personally important. By contrast, framing GM foods in terms of partisan identity engendered little resistance to a corrective message. Our findings illustrate the value of adopting a broader perspective on misinformation because people may resist corrections for reasons that are unrelated to their partisanship.

Who Says What in Which Networks: What influences Social Media Users’ Emotional Reactions to the COVID-19 Vaccine Infodemic?

This study aims to identify effective predictors that influence publics’ emotional reactions to COVID-19 vaccine misinformation as well as corrective messages. We collected a large sample of COVID-19 vaccine related misinformation and corrective messages on Facebook as well as the users’ emotional reactions (i.e., emojis) to these messages. Focusing on three clusters of features such as messages’ linguistic features, source characteristics, and messages’ network positions, we examined whether users’ reactions to misinformation and corrective information would differ. We used random forest models to identify the most salient predictors among over 70 predictors for both types of messages. Our analysis found that for misinformation, political ideology of the message source was the most salient feature that predicted anxious and enthusiastic reactions, followed by message features that highlight personal concerns and messages’ network positions. For corrective messages, while the sources’ ideology was still key to raising anxiety, the most important feature for triggering enthusiasm was the messages’ network positions and message quality.

" Rumor Correction in Social Media Crisis Communication: A Case of Connective Sense-breaking"

Large-scale societal crises require individuals and organizations to make sense of ambiguous situations. Nowadays, users use social media such as Twitter to seek and contribute crisis-related information. However, contradictory cues such as rumors increasingly break up their sense- and decision-making processes. We examine how sense-breaking (i.e., rumor-supporting and -correction messages) impact rumor spreading and how different user archetypes contribute to this process. Against the theory of connective action as a backdrop, we conducted a case study on the German Chemnitz 2018 riots and associated Twitter communication. With an analysis combining semi-automated content analysis and social network analysis, we identified five rumor-spreading networks. Characteristic user behavior and deduced user archetypes revealed that impeded connective action negatively impacted rumor correction. From those findings, we theoretically derive a concept that we call “connective sense-breaking”; that is, connective efforts by involved user archetypes and their supporting and correction behavior to achieve information consensus. This new perspective on rumor spreading provides IS researchers with an expedient lens for future work and helps crisis communication stakeholders such as emergency management agencies to define their role in rumor spreading and, consequently, improve their ad hoc decision-making.

Finding the Right Channel: An Analysis of Communication Channel Preferences Amongst Potential Extension Clientele

New communication methods and technology continue to emerge and evolve – as do societal trends – making it paramount that Extension professionals stay abreast with the preferred communication channels of potential clientele. By being aware of clients’ preferred communication channels, Extension professionals can increase the number of participants who benefit from their work while also improving the quality of the message being delivered. The present study examined the preferred communication channels of potential Extension clientele specifically when gathering information regarding their community. Specifically, a non-probability opt-in sampling procedure was employed whereby respondent (N = 3,347) communication channel preferences were analyzed from an audience segmentation and uses and gratifications perspective. Overall, the results indicated the most effective channels through which to reach potential Extension clientele under 50 years of age is through the internet and social media, while word of mouth and newspaper are preferred channels for those 50 and over. However, the results of the study indicate there are a variety of potential communication channels with varying degrees of preference among different audiences. Using study results as a starting point to inform communication channel strategy may help to Extension professionals ensure the correct message is provided to the correct audience via the correct channel.

The ‘Fauci Effect’: Reducing COVID-19 misconceptions and vaccine hesitancy using an authentic multimodal intervention

Social media environments enable users to proliferate misinformation surrounding COVID-19. Expert sources, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci have leveraged social media to present corrective multimedia messages. However, little is known about the efficacy of these messages in revising common misconceptions about COVID-19 and influencing behavior. In this study, we examined the efficacy of a multimodal intervention using authentic social media messages that directly addressed common COVID-19 misconceptions. Going further, we identified individual differences that influenced the effectiveness of the intervention, as well as whether those factors predicted individuals’ willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The results showed that the intervention was successful in increasing knowledge when compared to a baseline control. Those who were older and reported less vaccine hesitancy showed greater learning from the intervention. Factors that significantly predicted intention to vaccinate included receiving the intervention, vaccine confidence, vaccine hesitancy, prior flu vaccination history, age, and fear of COVID-19. These findings indicate that multimodal messages can be effectively leveraged in social media to both fight misinformation and increase intention to be vaccinated - however, these interventions may not be as effective for all individuals.