Effects of brief exposure to misinformation about e-cigarette harms on Twitter on knowledge and perceptions of e-cigarettes.

Background: This study examined whether exposure to misinformation found on Twitter about e-cigarette harms leads to inaccurate knowledge and misperceptions of harms of e-cigarette use among cigarette smokers.

Methods: We conducted an online randomized controlled experiment in November 2019 among an online sample of 2400 adult US and UK cigarette smokers who did not currently use e-cigarettes. Participants viewed four tweets in one of four conditions: 1) e-cigarettes are as or more harmful than smoking, 2) e-cigarettes are completely harmless, 3) e-cigarette harms are uncertain and 4) control (physical activity).

Smokers' Likelihood to Engage With Information and Misinformation on Twitter About the Relative Harms of e-Cigarette Use: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Information and misinformation on the internet about e-cigarette harms may increase smokers' misperceptions of e-cigarettes. There is limited research on smokers' engagement with information and misinformation about e-cigarettes on social media.

Objective: This study assessed smokers' likelihood to engage with-defined as replying, retweeting, liking, and sharing-tweets that contain information and misinformation and uncertainty about the harms of e-cigarettes.

Emotional Responses and Perceived Relative Harm Mediate the Effect of Exposure to Misinformation about E-Cigarettes on Twitter and Intention to Purchase E-Cigarettes among Adult Smokers.

There is a gap in knowledge on the affective mechanisms underlying effects of exposure to health misinformation. This study aimed to understand whether discrete emotional responses and perceived relative harm of e-cigarettes versus smoking mediate the effect of exposure to tweets about the harms of e-cigarettes on Twitter and intention to purchase e-cigarettes among adult smokers. We conducted a web-based experiment in November 2019 among 2400 adult smokers who were randomly assigned to view one of four conditions of tweets containing different levels of misinformation.

Effects of brief exposure to misinformation about e-cigarette harms on twitter: a randomised controlled experiment.

Objectives: To assess the effect of exposure to misinformation about e-cigarette harms found on Twitter on adult current smokers' intention to quit smoking cigarettes, intention to purchase e-cigarettes and perceived relative harm of e-cigarettes compared with regular cigarettes.

Setting: An online randomised controlled experiment conducted in November 2019 among USA and UK current smokers.

Participants: 2400 adult current smokers aged ≥18 years who were not current e-cigarette users recruited from an online panel.