Communication of Uncertainty about Preliminary Evidence and the Spread of Its Inferred Misinformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Weibo Case Study

The rapid spread of preliminary scientific evidence is raising concerns on its role in producing misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research investigated how the communication of uncertainty about preliminary evidence affects the spread of its inferred misinformation in a Weibo case s...

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Autores principales:	Jiahui Lu, Meishan Zhang, Yan Zheng, Qiyu Li
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	social media COVID-19 misinformation uncertainty preliminary evidence Medicine R
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/da6760cda70a4271bfa214749b2b2503
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:da6760cda70a4271bfa214749b2b25032021-11-25T17:49:35ZCommunication of Uncertainty about Preliminary Evidence and the Spread of Its Inferred Misinformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Weibo Case Study10.3390/ijerph1822119331660-46011661-7827https://doaj.org/article/da6760cda70a4271bfa214749b2b25032021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/22/11933https://doaj.org/toc/1661-7827https://doaj.org/toc/1660-4601The rapid spread of preliminary scientific evidence is raising concerns on its role in producing misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research investigated how the communication of uncertainty about preliminary evidence affects the spread of its inferred misinformation in a Weibo case study. In total, 3439 Weibo posts and 10,380 reposts regarding the misinformation of pets transmitting COVID-19 were analyzed. The results showed that attitude ambiguity toward the preliminary evidence and the stage when the evidence was first released with uncertainty were associated with higher numbers of likes and retweets of misinformation posts. Our study highlights the internal sources of misinformation and revisits the contextual perspective in misinformation studies.Jiahui LuMeishan ZhangYan ZhengQiyu LiMDPI AGarticlesocial mediaCOVID-19misinformationuncertaintypreliminary evidenceMedicineRENInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 11933, p 11933 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	social media COVID-19 misinformation uncertainty preliminary evidence Medicine R
spellingShingle	social media COVID-19 misinformation uncertainty preliminary evidence Medicine R Jiahui Lu Meishan Zhang Yan Zheng Qiyu Li Communication of Uncertainty about Preliminary Evidence and the Spread of Its Inferred Misinformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Weibo Case Study
description	The rapid spread of preliminary scientific evidence is raising concerns on its role in producing misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research investigated how the communication of uncertainty about preliminary evidence affects the spread of its inferred misinformation in a Weibo case study. In total, 3439 Weibo posts and 10,380 reposts regarding the misinformation of pets transmitting COVID-19 were analyzed. The results showed that attitude ambiguity toward the preliminary evidence and the stage when the evidence was first released with uncertainty were associated with higher numbers of likes and retweets of misinformation posts. Our study highlights the internal sources of misinformation and revisits the contextual perspective in misinformation studies.
format	article
author	Jiahui Lu Meishan Zhang Yan Zheng Qiyu Li
author_facet	Jiahui Lu Meishan Zhang Yan Zheng Qiyu Li
author_sort	Jiahui Lu
title	Communication of Uncertainty about Preliminary Evidence and the Spread of Its Inferred Misinformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Weibo Case Study
title_short	Communication of Uncertainty about Preliminary Evidence and the Spread of Its Inferred Misinformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Weibo Case Study
title_full	Communication of Uncertainty about Preliminary Evidence and the Spread of Its Inferred Misinformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Weibo Case Study
title_fullStr	Communication of Uncertainty about Preliminary Evidence and the Spread of Its Inferred Misinformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Weibo Case Study
title_full_unstemmed	Communication of Uncertainty about Preliminary Evidence and the Spread of Its Inferred Misinformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Weibo Case Study
title_sort	communication of uncertainty about preliminary evidence and the spread of its inferred misinformation during the covid-19 pandemic—a weibo case study
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/da6760cda70a4271bfa214749b2b2503
work_keys_str_mv	AT jiahuilu communicationofuncertaintyaboutpreliminaryevidenceandthespreadofitsinferredmisinformationduringthecovid19pandemicaweibocasestudy AT meishanzhang communicationofuncertaintyaboutpreliminaryevidenceandthespreadofitsinferredmisinformationduringthecovid19pandemicaweibocasestudy AT yanzheng communicationofuncertaintyaboutpreliminaryevidenceandthespreadofitsinferredmisinformationduringthecovid19pandemicaweibocasestudy AT qiyuli communicationofuncertaintyaboutpreliminaryevidenceandthespreadofitsinferredmisinformationduringthecovid19pandemicaweibocasestudy
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Communication of Uncertainty about Preliminary Evidence and the Spread of Its Inferred Misinformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic—A Weibo Case Study

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