Because people tend to look for information that legitimizes their fears (Fergus, 2013) and because people with high health-related anxiety are more likely to share health misinformation (Pezzo & Beckstead, 2006), Pan, Liu and Fang (2021) proposed that “individual’s health-related anxiety is positively associated with their health misinformation acceptance.” 
 

Hypothesis about health-related anxiety & health misinformation acceptance by Pan, Liu & Fang (2021)

Health-related anxiety means a person’s degree of anxiety regarding a health-related rumor (Greenhill & Oppenheim, 2017).

Kalamazoo College

“(a) examine how factors such as anxiety about health-related issues, preexisting beliefs, and repeated exposure to health misinformation may contribute to the acceptance of the unverified information on social media, and (b), to explore
demographic differences (e.g., sex, age, education level, and social-economic status) in health misinformation acceptance”


Goals of a study by Pan, Liu & Fang (2021) about health misinformation acceptance

Pan, W., Liu, D., & Fang, J. (2021). An Examination of Factors Contributing to the Acceptance of Online Health Misinformation. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 524.

Acceptance of Online Health Misinformation (Pan, Liu & Fang, 2021)

Health-related anxiety

To avoid cognitive dissonance, people tend to believe information that aligns with their opinions (Greenhill & Oppenheimer, 2017). So Pan, Liu and Fang (2021) hypothesized that “Individuals’ preexisting beliefs will be positively associated with their health misinformation acceptance.”


Hypothesis about preexisting beliefs and & health misinformation by Pan, Liu & Fang (2021)

Repeated exposure increases one’s likelihood to believe a statement (Dechene et al., 2010) because the increased familiarity leads to easier processing (Shen et al., 2019).   Pan, Liu and Fang (2021) hypothesized that “individuals’ repeated exposure to health misinformation is positively associated with their health misinformation acceptance.“



Hypothesis about repeated exposure & health misinformation by Pan, Liu & Fang (2021)

The hypotheses were supported. Health-related anxiety, preexisting beliefs and repeated exposure were significantly, positively related to people's health misinformation acceptance. Furthermore, they found that meaningful associations between demographic data and health misinformation acceptance. Women were more likely to believe health misinformation than men. Age correlated significantly, negatively with health misinformation acceptance. Income and educational level (as indicators of socio-economic status) were significantly, negatively correlated with health misinformation acceptance.

Findings of a study by Pan, Liu & Fang (2021) about health misinformation acceptance

- Misinformation items weren’t representative of all health-related misinformation.
- Correlational study --> no information about causation
- Self-generated measures 
- In the future, the measure of emotions, perceived trust, intentions to share, actual sharing or disseminating behaviors should be included.


Limitations of Pan, Liu and Fang's study (2021) on health misinformation acceptance 

After the study introduction, ten misinformation items were shown. First, participants answered "Have you heard of the following information?" regarding each item (repeated exposure). Next, they answered "Do you think the aforementioned information is true?" regarding each item. The items about health-related anxiety were: "How would you evaluate the health environment you live in?" (very unsafe – very safe), "Do you often worry about health-related issues?" (strongly disagree – strongly agree), "How likely do you think you will encounter health-related issues in the future year?" (very unlikely – very likely). Next, they reacted to the statements in the attached photo. At the end, they filled in their demographic data.



Survey design in Pan, Liu & Fang's study (2021) on health misinformation acceptance

N = 22706. They were acquired via the online platform Tencent which is very popular in China. See their demographic data in the image attached.

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