其他摘要 | With the increasing popularity of the Internet, online rumors are increasingly affecting people's lives. In particular, young people are more receptive to onfine information and are more frequently exposed to online information, and are more fikely to be guided and influenced by online information as their outlook on fife and values may not be fully formed. Therefore, how to effectively dispel rumors is not only an important issue in social governance, but also a hot topic of concern in the field of youth education, which has a very urgent practical significance.
However, there is a lack of research on how rumors and disinformation affect attitude change and their psychological mechanisms. In this study, we attempt to investigate the cognitive and emotional mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of rumor-mongering from the perspective of optimising the effectiveness of rumor-mongering messages. A one-way online experimental design was used to explore the effect of the presentation of rumor dispelling information (direct vs. negative) on the credibility of rumors and the willingness to share them, as well as the role of emotion and depth of information processing in this process. To make the study more ecologically valid, we designed four rumors with different information structures and conducted two studies in two different rumor contexts (policy-based rumors and breaking news rumors).
Study 1 examined the impact of rumors related to government policies and corresponding disinformation on rumor credibility and willingness to share, using an online questionnaire to collect 517 valid samples. The results showed that: (1) direct rumor dispelling significantly reduced subjects' trustworthiness and willingness to share compared to no rumor dispelling, and positive and negative rumor dispelling also reduced subjects' trustworthiness and willingness to share, but the difference was not significant; (2) direct rumor dispelling affected subjects' trustworthiness and willingness to share by changing the depth of positive and negative emotional feelings and information processing triggered by the rumor.
Study 2 focused on rumors related to emergency events and the corresponding disinformation, and 657 valid samples were collected using the same onfine questionnaire. The results showed that: (1) compared to no rumor, both direct and positive/negative rumors significantly reduced the subjects' trustworthiness of the rumors, while direct rumors were significantly more effective than positive/negative rumors; (2) compared to no rumor, direct rumors significantly reduced the subjects' willingness to share the rumors, while there was no significant difference between positive and negative rumors and no rumors; (3) direct rumors changed the positive and negative emotional feelings and the depth of information processing triggered by the rumors, (3) direct disinformation influenced subjects' trustworthiness and willingness to share by changing positive and negative emotional feelings and the depth of information processing triggered by the rumor; (4) positive and negative disinformation influenced subjects' trustworthiness by changing positive and negative emotional feelings and the depth of information processing triggered by the rumor.
The two studies together show that rumor dispelling methods can significantly influence people's perceptions of rumors and their willingness to spread them. Direct disinformation was significantly more effective than both positive and negative disinformation, while positive and negative disinformation significantly reduced the credibility of rumors compared to no disinformation, only in the case of rumors about unexpected events. Further, disinformation methods influence rumor credibility and willingness to share by changing the emotional feelings and depth of information processing triggered by the rumor, with emotional feelings and depth of information processing mediating the chain between disinformation methods and rumor credibility, and disinformation methods and willingness to share. The results of this study have good practical value for the management of online rumors, which can be used to implement more targeted disinformation interventions for both poficy and emergency rumors, as well as for the online management of special groups, such as the development of effective disinformation strategies for young online users. |
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