How can we induce social media users to be discerning when sharing information during a pandemic? An experiment on Facebook Messenger with users from Kenya (n = 7,498) and Nigeria (n = 7,794) tested interventions designed to decrease intentions to share COVID-19 misinformation without decreasing intentions to share factual posts. The initial stage of the study incorporated: (1) a factorial design with 40 intervention combinations; and (2) a contextual adaptive design, increasing the probability of assignment to treatments that worked better for previous subjects with similar characteristics. The second stage evaluated the best-performing treatments and a targeted treatment assignment policy estimated from the data. We precisely estimate null effects from warning flags and related article suggestions, tactics used by social media platforms. However, nudges to consider the accuracy of information reduced misinformation sharing relative to control by 4.9% (estimate = -2.3 percentage points, 95% CI = [-4.2, -0.35]). Such low-cost scalable interventions may improve the quality of information circulating online.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01810-7 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Assessing the disconnect between student interest and education in artificial intelligence in medicine in Saudi Arabia.
BMC Med Educ
January 2025
Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Background: Although artificial intelligence (AI) has gained increasing attention for its potential future impact on clinical practice, medical education has struggled to stay ahead of the developing technology. The question of whether medical education is fully preparing trainees to adapt to potential changes from AI technology in clinical practice remains unanswered, and the influence of AI on medical students' career preferences remains unclear. Understanding the gap between students' interest in and knowledge of AI may help inform the medical curriculum structure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWanting and liking of Facebook functions and their correlation to problematic use.
Sci Rep
January 2025
Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
A key question about social media use is whether it constitutes an addiction. A possible frame of reference to investigate this question is the Incentive Sensitizations Theory (IST), as it provides a solid empirical background to understand the motivational and hedonic aspects of problematic behaviors. A central assumption of IST that addiction-related cues play a pivotal role in addictive behaviors has remained relatively understudied in the context of social media use.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhen It's Not Tics: Functional Tic-Like Behaviors.
Psychiatr Clin North Am
March 2025
Kennedy Krieger Institute, Department of Child Psychiatry, 707 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 600 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Functional tic-like behaviors (FTLBs) are a manifestation of functional neurologic disorder that can be mistaken for neurodevelopmental tic disorders like Tourette syndrome. Much information was gained about FTLBs because of an outbreak of FTLBs spreading among adolescents and young adults via social media during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. In comparison to neurodevelopmental tic disorders, FTLBs have an older age of onset, more abrupt symptom onset, and more complex tics as well as other features that would be atypical of Tourette syndrome.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdolescent Youth Survey on HIV Prevention and Sexual Health Education in Alabama: Protocol for a Web-Based Survey With Fraud Protection Study.
JMIR Res Protoc
January 2025
Institute on Digital Health and Innovation, College of Nursing, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States.
Background: In Alabama, the undiagnosed HIV rate is over 20%; youth and young adults, particularly those who identify as sexual and gender minority individuals, are at elevated risk for HIV acquisition and are the only demographic group in the United States with rising rates of new infections. Adolescence is a period marked by exploration, risk taking, and learning, making comprehensive sexual health education a high-priority prevention strategy for HIV and sexually transmitted infections. However, in Alabama, school-based sexual health and HIV prevention education is strictly regulated and does not address the unique needs of sexual and gender minority teenagers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWebsite Transparency and Information Dissemination among Urology Residency Programs.
Urology
January 2025
Department of Urology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
Objective: To evaluate the transparency and quality of information dissemination among urology residency program websites and provide a checklist. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, urology residency programs have had to adjust their typical practices, including the adoption of virtual recruiting. Such efforts have included improving program websites, which are often the starting point for potential applicants to obtain information about programs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!