“I Do Not Trust Health Information Shared by My Parents”: Credibility Judgement of Health (Mis)information on Social Media in China

ABSTRACT

The surge of health misinformation on social media poses a threat to public health. This qualitative study reports how users process health misinformation from the dominant strong-tie social media, WeChat, in China. We conducted ten on-site focus groups involving 76 adult participants. Drawing on the apomediation theory and the dual processing model of credibility assessment, we found the heuristic approach to processing health information was the dominant route of engagement. We identified four categories of credibility assessment cues, including (1) expertise, authority, and commercial intent of original sources, (2) expertise of apomediaries (i.e. social media information sharers) and generational bias, (3) clickbait and sensational content versus objective scientific style, and (4) disconfirmation versus confirmation bias. We highlight that apomediaries are playing an increasingly important role in informing credibility judgment. Specifically, younger adults have formed a generational bias of deeming older apomediaries as cues of lower credibility.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank all focus group participants for their contributions to this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Data collection for this research was funded by The National Social Science Fund of China [Grant No. 19BXW108: Research on the Correction Effect and Optimization of Corrective Health Information in the Big Data Era].