Beyond the post: The impact of politized anti-vaccine misinformation comments and challenges of correction on social media

Abstract

Despite the proven effectiveness of HPV vaccines in preventing cervical cancer, vaccination rates in the United States remain low, in part because parents' decisions are heavily shaped by misinformation encountered on social media. Using an online experimental design (N = 1039), this study investigated the effects of politized anti-vaccine misinformation comments under CDC posts on parents' vaccination hesitancy as well as the emotional mechanism of this impact. Individual's need for cognition (NFC) was also examined as a moderator. Furthermore, we explored whether CDC corrections help to mitigate these negative effects. Results showed a moderated mediation relationship. Participants exposed to politized anti-vaccine misinformation comments reported higher HPV vaccine hesitancy, with negative emotions toward the original post mediating this association. However, this pattern was observed only among participants with low to medium levels of NFC. For individuals with high NFC, the relationship between negative emotions and vaccine hesitancy, as well as the mediation effect of negative emotions, were not significant. Corrections from the CDC did not help decrease the negative emotions and HPV vaccine hesitancy. This study extends prior research by investigating the effectiveness of second-layer correction comments, an increasingly common but underexamined form of misinformation correction strategy in the current interactive social media environments.