Presumed Influence of Health Misinformation’s Threat to Others and Intentions to Correct it on Social Media: The Mediating Role of Emotions and the Moderating Role of Perceived Closeness

Building on the Influence of Presumed Influence model and Social Categorization Theory, we conducted a 2 (severity: high vs. low) × 2 (materials: two per severity condition) × 2 (susceptibility: high vs. low) × 2 (closeness: close vs. distant) between-subjects experiment with 903 Chinese adults to examine the relationship between perceived threats of health misinformation’s influence on others and individuals’ intentions to correct it. We found that the perceived severity of misinformation’s influence on others was positively associated with corrective intentions, while the perceived susceptibility of others to this influence showed no significant association. Moreover, the perceived severity enhanced corrective intentions by eliciting both negative and positive emotions, particularly anticipated guilt and hope. Lastly, the perceived closeness of vulnerable others to oneself moderated the relationship between the perceived susceptibility and corrective intentions. Our study unveils a prospective mechanism for engaging social media users in combating misinformation, emphasizing the importance of strengthening users’ perception of misinformation’s threat to others and the critical role of specific discrete emotions in motivating correction.