The Resilience of Attitude Toward Vaccination: Web-Based Randomized Controlled Trial on the Processing of Misinformation.
| Autor: | Béchard B; School of Psychology, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada., Gramaccia JA; Department of Communication, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada., Gagnon D; Quebec National Institute of Public Health, Québec, QC, Canada., Laouan-Sidi EA; Quebec National Institute of Public Health, Québec, QC, Canada., Dubé È; Department of Anthropology, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada., Ouimet M; Department of Political Science, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada., de Hemptinne D; School of Psychology, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada., Tremblay S; School of Psychology, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada. |
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| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Zdroj: | JMIR formative research [JMIR Form Res] 2024 Dec 04; Vol. 8, pp. e52871. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Dec 04. |
| DOI: | 10.2196/52871 |
| Abstrakt: | Background: Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was already recognized that internet-based misinformation and disinformation could influence individuals to refuse or delay vaccination for themselves, their families, or their children. Reinformation, which refers to hyperpartisan and ideologically biased content, can propagate polarizing messages on vaccines, thereby contributing to vaccine hesitancy even if it is not outright disinformation. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of reinformation on vaccine hesitancy. Specifically, the goal was to investigate how misinformation presented in the style and layout of a news article could influence the perceived tentativeness (credibility) of COVID-19 vaccine information and confidence in COVID-19 vaccination. Methods: We conducted a web-based randomized controlled trial by recruiting English-speaking Canadians aged 18 years and older from across Canada through the Qualtrics (Silver Lake) paid opt-in panel system. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 distinct versions of a news article on COVID-19 vaccines, each featuring variations in writing style and presentation layout. After reading the news article, participants self-assessed the tentativeness of the information provided, their confidence in COVID-19 vaccines, and their attitude toward vaccination in general. Results: The survey included 537 participants, with 12 excluded for not meeting the task completion time. The final sample comprised 525 participants distributed about equally across the 4 news article versions. Chi-square analyses revealed a statistically significant association between general attitude toward vaccination and the perceived tentativeness of the information about COVID-19 vaccines included in the news article (χ 2 Conclusions: Exposure to a news article conveying misinformation may not be sufficient to change an individual's level of vaccine hesitancy. The study reveals that the predominant factor in shaping individuals' perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines is their attitude toward vaccination in general. This attitude also moderates the influence of writing style on perceived tentativeness; the stronger one's opposition to vaccines, the less pronounced the impact of writing style on perceived tentativeness. International Registered Report Identifier (irrid): RR2-10.2196/41012. (©Benoît Béchard, Julie A Gramaccia, Dominique Gagnon, Elhadji Anassour Laouan-Sidi, Ève Dubé, Mathieu Ouimet, Delphine de Hemptinne, Sébastien Tremblay. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 04.12.2024.) |
| Databáze: | MEDLINE |
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