Social Science Research Council Research AMP Just Tech
Citation

No te creo: cómo proporcionar una fuente para corregir las percepciones erróneas de salud en las redes sociales // I do not believe you: how providing a source corrects health misperceptions across social media platforms

Author:
Vraga, Emily; Bode, Leticia
Publication:
Information, Communication & Society
Year:
2017

Social media are often criticized as serving as a source of misinformation, but in this study we examine how they may also function to correct misperceptions on an emerging health issue. We use an experimental design to consider social correction that occurs via peers, testing both the type of correction (i.e., whether a source is provided or not) and the platform on which the correction ocratcurs (i.e., Facebook versus Twitter). Our results suggest that a source is necessary to correct misperceptions about the causes of the Zika virus on both Facebook and Twitter, but the mechanism by which such correction occurs differs across platforms. Implications for successful social media campaigns to address health misinformation are addressed.