Factors influencing correction upon exposure to health misinformation on social media: the moderating role of active social media use

Abstract

PurposeThe proliferation of health misinformation on social media has increasingly engaged scholarly interest. This research examines the determinants influencing users’ proactive correction of health misinformation, a crucial strategy in combatting health misbeliefs. Grounded in the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this research investigates how factors including issue involvement, information literacy and active social media use impact health misinformation recognition and intention to correct it.Design/methodology/approachA total of 413 social media users finished a national online questionnaire. SPSS 26.0, AMOS 21.0 and PROCESS Macro 4.1 were used to address the research hypotheses and questions.FindingsResults indicated that issue involvement and information literacy both contribute to health misinformation correction intention (HMCI), while misinformation recognition acts as a mediator between information literacy and HMCI. Moreover, active social media use moderated the influence of information literacy on HMCI.Originality/valueThis study not only extends the ELM into the research domain of correcting health misinformation on social media but also enriches the perspective of individual fact-checking intention research by incorporating dimensions of users’ motivation, capability and behavioral patterns.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-09-2023-0505