Combating online misinformation regarding vaccinations: The influence of a warning tool on information choice
Publication year
2023Number of pages
20 p.
Source
European Journal of Health Communication, 4, 2, (2023), pp. 93-112ISSN
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor
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Organization
SW OZ BSI CW
Journal title
European Journal of Health Communication
Volume
vol. 4
Issue
iss. 2
Languages used
English (eng)
Page start
p. 93
Page end
p. 112
Subject
Communication and MediaAbstract
An increasing number of parents refrain from vaccinating their children. This causes lower immunisation coverage, resulting in disease outbreaks. Online misinformation about early-childhood vaccination is a potential cause of this problem. This study tests whether a warning tool, with the appearance of a traffic light, can influence parents’ information choices. An online experiment was conducted with parents and expecting parents (N = 179) with varying pre-existing attitudes and in different decision stages. Participants were asked to select three vaccine-related web links on a Google search result page either with or without the warning tool present. Results showed that participants in the warning tool condition (i.e., who saw reliability labels) selected a higher number of links marked as reliable compared to participants in the control group. No significant moderating effect of decision stage and pre-existing attitude were found. As our findings suggest that a warning tool can lead to better-informed vaccination decisions, the implementation of such a warning tool may prove worthwhile.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Academic publications [246216]
- Electronic publications [133894]
- Faculty of Social Sciences [30432]
- Open Access publications [107414]
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