Fake news or bad news? Toward an emotion-driven cognitive dissonance model of misinformation diffusion

ABSTRACT

Misinformation about food safety has become a serious problem in Mainland China. This study explores the cognitive, affective, and environmental factors affecting the acquisition and diffusion of food safety misinformation. Based on a national sample of Chinese Internet users, we found that: (1) social media are the major source of misinformation about food safety, while exposure to online news reduces levels of misinformation; (2) Internet self-efficacy reduces levels of misinformation, but it also facilitates information diffusion; (3) individuals who possess more misinformation disseminate food safety (mis)information more frequently online; (4) negative emotions mediate levels of misinformation and the diffusion of information; and (5) levels of distrust moderate the mediating effect of negative emotion, where misinformation only triggers negative emotions among people with high trust in food safety. An emotion-driven cognitive dissonance model of misinformation diffusion is proposed accordingly.

KEYWORDS:

• Misinformation
• cognitive dissonance
• social media
• emotion
• self-efficacy
• food safety

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Rui Wang is an Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Beijing Normal University in China. She received her Ph.D. in Communication from Stanford University. Her research focuses on political communication and survey methodology.

Yuan He is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Arts and Communication at Beijing Normal University in China. Her research focuses on media credibility.

Jing Xu is a Doctoral Student in the School of Journalism and Communication at Beijing Normal University in China, and a Visiting Scholar in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Hongzhong Zhang is a Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Beijing Normal University in China. His current research interests include social bots and media credibility.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Retrieved from http://www.foodmate.net/special/anquan/33.html; http://news.foodmate.net/2011/04/178403.html; http://news.foodmate.net/2011/03/176984.html.

2 According to the Report of 2016 Internet Rumor Dissemination and Adult Cognition Research released jointly by China Daily Public Opinion Monitoring Room and New Media Thinktank in July 2016. Retrieved from http://yuqing.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0801/c364391-28600847.html.

3 According to the statistics released by the Chinese Academy of Social Science Research. Retrieved from http://www.cac.gov.cn/2016-12/03/c_1120042033.htm.

4 Based on a survey conducted July 8–21, 2019, among 5107 U.S. adults who are members of Pew Research Center’s American Trands Panel. Retrieved from https://www.journalism.org/2019/10/02/americans-are-wary-of-the-role-social-media-sites-play-in-delivering-the-news/.

5 According to the Report of 2016 Internet Rumor Dissemination and Adult Cognition Research. Retrieved from http://yuqing.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0801/c364391-28600847.html.

6 According to the 2017 Food Rumor Governance Report. Retrieved from http://news.cnr.cn/dj/20180720/t20180720_524307510.shtml.

7 According to various news reports, such as Economic Daily (retrieved from http://www.ce.cn/cysc/sp/info/201707/22/t20170722_24371906.shtml), China Quality Daily (retrieved from http://www.cqn.com.cn/zgzlb/content/2019-09/18/content_7553490.htm), China Youth Daily (retrieved from http://news.cyol.com/content/2017-07/03/content_16257679.htm), etc.

8 100 respondents in each province except for Qinghai Province and Tibet with 50 in each.

9 The survey company was established in 2011 and its panel of participants covers users of Sina Weibo (the Chinese Twitter), Alipay (China’s biggest online payment service provider) and Renren.com (the first Chinese social network site similar to Facebook). Adult Internet users are invited to complete web-based questionnaires through the online survey system developed by Macro Vision Beijing and receive virtual coupons as incentives which can be applied for discount during online purchase.

10 Age is categorized differently in our sample, but a parallel comparison may suggest an underrepresentation of younger Internet users (25 and under).

11 According to the Report of 2016 Internet Rumor Dissemination and Adult Cognition Research. Retrieved from http://yuqing.people.com.cn/n1/2016/0801/c364391-28600847.html.

12 According to various news reports, e.g., https://news.china.com/domestic/945/20170419/30438399.html, http://piyao.qdxin.cn/dongtai/2019/3106.html, http://news.foodmate.net/2018/03/459586.html.

13 Seven out of the top 10 food safety rumors in 2019 delivered negative information (source: http://www.piyao.org.cn/2019-12/30/c_1210416733.htm). All the top 10 food safety rumors in 2018 delivered negative information (source: http://www.cqn.com.cn/zhixiao/content/2018-12/28/content_6622229.htm). Eight out of 10 food safety rumors in 2017 delivered negative information (source: http://www.cqn.com.cn/zgzlb/content/2017-07/13/content_4563191.htm). All the top 3 food safety rumors and 6 out of 10 dairy product safety rumors in 2016 delivered negative information (source: http://www.cqn.com.cn/zgzlb/content/2016-07/06/content_3111180.htm and http://www.cqn.com.cn/pp/content/2016-05/12/content_2914875.htm). Seven out of top 9 food safety rumors in 2015 delivered negative information (source: http://www.cqn.com.cn/zgzlwlx/content/2015-09/22/content_2560516.htm).