Responses to Social Media Influencers’ Misinformation about COVID-19: A Pre-Registered Multiple-Exposure Experiment

ABSTRACT In the current “infodemic,” surrounding the spread of false claims as well as conspiracy theories related to COVID-19, social media influencers, popular figures on platforms like Instagram, are a potential source of misinformation. As seemingly ordinary and trustworthy individuals, who can function as opinion leaders, influencers may impact perceptions of the virus and policies in place to minimize its threat. In this pre-registered online experiment (N = 148), we investigated factors such as parasocial relationships with the influencer, which potentially increase susceptibility to influencers’ claims. Second, we examined if media literacy and issue-specific knowledge act as protective factors diminishing the impact of misinformation. Although participants remained largely unaffected by the misinformation, it increased mistrust in official sources for respondents with high perceived influencer credibility, trust in influencer’s advice, and attitude homophily. Meanwhile, participants’ issue-specific knowledge was associated with weaker beliefs in misconceptions regarding COVID-19, irrespective of exposure to misinformation.