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Misinformation and substance use both increased substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined potential links between misinformation beliefs and substance use among adults, along with the potential for media literacy to mitigate misinformation's influences on problematic use of widely available substances of misuse. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test a theoretical model of media literacy's effects on substance use, fully mediated by disinformation beliefs, with a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults recruited through a Qualtrics panel of adults using census-based quotas for geographic region, population density, ethnic diversity and gender (N = 1264). The sample was 51.5% male (N = 651); 46.7% female (N = 591); 1.1% nonbinary (N = 13); and 0.7% (N = 9) not reporting. Media literacy for source of news positively associated with media literacy for content of news (b = 0.814, p < 0.001). Media literacy for content of news then positively associated with science media literacy (b = 0.192, p < 0.001). Science media literacy then negatively associated with disinformation beliefs (b = −0.586, p < 0.001), and COVID-19 disinformation beliefs associated with an increase in substance use (b = 0.466, p < 0.001). Disinformation beliefs also associated with alcohol and sleep medication co-use (odds = 1.956, p < 0.05). Results demonstrate media literacy's value for substance misuse prevention and effective public health messaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political polarization surrounding the COVID-19 health crisis has been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic. We combine prior research on motivated reasoning, selective exposure, and news framing to understand the association between partisan media use and social distancing behavior related to COVID-19. To do so, we collected media content data and national survey data during the onset of the pandemic. We employed structural topic modeling (STM), dependency parsing, word co-occurrence, and manual coding to examine the media coverage. Next, we analyzed survey data collected with a Qualtrics panel from a sample of U.S. residents for factors explaining social distancing behaviors. Results reveal coverage from the right leaning outlets downplayed the virus and highlighted the consequences of lockdowns on the economy. Our survey findings show that even after accounting for a range of demographic, political orientation, and COVID-19 awareness variables, conservative media use was linked, although modestly, with a lower likelihood of social distancing behavior. Our findings echo past research on media framing of pandemics and their association with public attitudes and behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than 6 million people have died due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to slow down the spread of COVID-19, health authorities have created numerous guidelines. In the current study, we use survey data from the U.S. and social cognitive theory (SCT) to examine the associations among self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, and willingness to perform recommended COVID-19 related health behavior. Considering the misinformation-filled information ecology during the pandemic, we also examine the moderating role of misperceptions in these relationships. Our findings show that in general the SCT hypotheses hold for COVID-19 related behavior willingness. The interaction effects with COVID-19 misperceptions show that self-efficacy is not enough to understand people's health behavior. Higher outcome expectancies are important and may be able to overcome even if people held high misperceptions. Our findings have direct implications for communication theory and for health organizations in the contemporary information ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: One 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/approach: The 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. Findings: The 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/value: The 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 review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2021-0600 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To examine strategies that help motivate social correction behaviors to combat COVID-19-related health misinformation on social media. Design: 2 (message types: narrative vs statistics) x 2 (social frames: individual vs collective) between-subjects experiment. Setting: Qualtrics-based online experiment via Lucid. Subjects: The final sample consisted of 450 participants (M age = 45.31). Measures: Manipulation check, discussion and correction intentions, and need for cognition (NFC). Analysis: ANCOVA and PROCESS model 3 were used to analyze the data. Results: Significant interaction effects emerged between message types and social frames on discussion intention, F (1, 442) = 5.26, P =.022, and correction intention, F (1, 442) = 4.85, P =.028. Collectively framed narrative correction (M discussion = 3.15, M correction = 3.17) was more effective than individually framed narrative correction (M discussion = 2.73, M correction = 2.77). Individually framed statistical correction (M discussion = 3.10, M correction = 2.95) was more persuasive than collectively framed statistical correction (M discussion = 2.89, M correction = 2.69). The interaction effects were more evident for people low on NFC, P =.031. Conclusion: In motivating social correction behaviors, a story is better told with an emphasis on collective interests, and numbers are better presented with personal gains and losses. Future interventions should identify the target audience based on the level of NFC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media platforms that are full of misinformation and conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic can have an adverse impact on young adults. Young adults are going through critical changes in their lives due to the pandemic including educational challenges, uncertainties in employment, changes in routines, and loss of security and safety. Yet another challenge during this time is the uncertainty and the exposure to massive amount of misinformation. The pandemic has had a global impact on people of all ages, including young adults, who are the primary interest for the current study. We conducted 30 in-depth interviews with young adults to understand their misperceptions about COVID-19, how young adults are coping with the COVID-19 'infodemic', and young adults' recommendations for combatting this challenge. Findings show majority of participants are stressed about the abundance of misinformation available about the pandemic. Additionally, young adults provide important ways to combat misinformation about COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed many communication challenges for public health authorities, especially communicating the safety, effectiveness, and importance of the COVID-19 vaccine. This study takes an integrative approach that includes a content analysis of COVID-19 vaccine-related messages from the CDC Facebook page and an experimental test of the effectiveness of the same types of vaccine-related messages on participants' attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine. Our findings from the content analysis show that gain-frame was used significantly more than loss-frame, and statistical evidence was more prevalent than narrative evidence in the CDC's COVID-19 vaccine-related messaging. Results from the experiment indicated that loss-framed, and messages with statistical evidence, may be more successful in promoting positive attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation has been circulating on social media and multiple conspiracy theories have since become quite popular. We conducted a U.S. national survey for three main purposes. First, we aim to examine the association between social media news consumption and conspiracy beliefs specific to COVID-19 and general conspiracy beliefs. Second, we investigate the influence of an important moderator, social media news trust, that has been overlooked in prior studies. Third, we further propose a moderated moderation model by including misinformation identification. Our findings show that social media news use was associated with higher conspiracy beliefs, and trust in social media news was found to be a significant moderator of the relationship between social media news use and conspiracy beliefs. Moreover, our findings show that misinformation identification moderated the relationship between social media news use and trust. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On a regular day, individuals can consume news and information on purpose as well as accidently. Incidental news exposure (INE) can be critical for an informed citizenry, but individuals can also encounter misinformation and disinformation accidently. Misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic has made headlines, and such fake information continues to circulate on social media. We examine the link between INE and misperceptions, as well as investigate the role of a literacy-related variable, self-perceived media literacy (SPML), which may mitigate the impact of INE on misperceptions. To that end, we use survey data to examine 1) the relationship between INE with general misperceptions and COVID-19 misperceptions, 2) the mediating role of general misperceptions between INE and COVID-19 misperceptions, and 3) the moderating role of SPML in this relationship. Our results demonstrated a significant moderated mediation model, in which the association between INE and COVID-19 misperceptions was mediated through general misperceptions, and this relationship was further moderated by SPML. Specifically, among those with higher levels of SPML, the indirect effect of INE on COVID-19 misperceptions was lower compared to those with lower levels of SPML. Our findings have critical implications for INE as well as misinformation research. • INE is associated with both general misperceptions and COVID-19 misperceptions. • COVID-19 misperception was mediated through general misperceptions. • The mediation relationship was moderated by self-perceived media literacy. • Among those with higher levels of SPML, the effect of INE was lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]