Health-related fake news during the COVID-19 pandemic: perceived trust and information search
ISSN: 1066-2243
Article publication date: 4 January 2022
Issue publication date: 9 May 2022
Abstract
Purpose
Health-related online fake news (HOFN) has become a major social problem. HOFN can lead to the spread of ineffective and even harmful remedies. The study aims to understand Internet users' responses to HOFN during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic using the protective action decision model (PADM).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected pandemic severity data (regional number of confirmed cases) from government websites of the USA and China (Studies 1 and 2), search behavior from Google and Baidu search engines (Studies 1 and 2) and data regarding trust in two online fake news stories from two national surveys (Studies 2 and 3). All data were analyzed using a multi-level linear model.
Findings
The research detected negative time-lagged relationships between pandemic severity and regional HOFN search behavior by three actual fake news stories from the USA and China (Study 1). Importantly, trust in HOFN served as a mediator in the time-lagged relationship between pandemic severity and search behavior (Study 2). Additionally, the relationship between pandemic severity and trust in HOFN varied according to individuals' perceived control (Study 3).
Originality/value
The authors' results underscore the important role of PADM in understanding Internet users' trust in and search for HOFN. When people trust HOFN, they may seek more information to implement further protective actions. Importantly, it appears that trust in HOFN varies with environmental cues (regional pandemic severity) and with individuals' perceived control, providing insight into developing coping strategies during a pandemic.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: This study is supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (20CSH073) to Lei Zheng and (19ZDA361) to corresponding author Yiwen Wang, and Fujian Social Science Foundation for Education Product (JAS19029) to Lei Zheng.
Conflicts of interest: None.
Ethics approval: All participants gave the informed consent which was approved by the Ethics Committee of Fuzhou University.
Citation
Zheng, L., Elhai, J.D., Miao, M., Wang, Y., Wang, Y. and Gan, Y. (2022), "Health-related fake news during the COVID-19 pandemic: perceived trust and information search", Internet Research, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 768-789. https://doi.org/10.1108/INTR-11-2020-0624
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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