TY - JOUR PY - 2024// TI - Does a perceptual gap lead to actions against digital misinformation? A third-person effect study among medical students JO - BMC public health A1 - Li, Zongya A1 - Yan, Jun SP - e1291 EP - e1291 VL - 24 IS - 1 N2 - BACKGROUND: We are making progress in the fight against health-related misinformation, but mass participation and active engagement are far from adequate. Focusing on pre-professional medical students with above-average medical knowledge, our study examined whether and how third-person perceptions (TPP), which hypothesize that people tend to perceive media messages as having a greater effect on others than on themselves, would motivate their actions against misinformation.

METHODS: We collected the cross-sectional data through a self-administered paper-and-pencil survey of 1,500 medical students in China during April 2022.

RESULTS: Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis, showed that TPP was negatively associated with medical students' actions against digital misinformation, including rebuttal of misinformation and promotion of corrective information. However, self-efficacy and collectivism served as positive predictors of both actions. Additionally, we found professional identification failed to play a significant role in influencing TPP, while digital misinformation self-efficacy was found to broaden the third-person perceptual gap and collectivism tended to reduce the perceptual bias significantly.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study contributes both to theory and practice. It extends the third-person effect theory by moving beyond the examination of restrictive actions and toward the exploration of corrective and promotional actions in the context of misinformation., It also lends a new perspective to the current efforts to counter digital misinformation; involving pre-professionals (in this case, medical students) in the fight.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1471-2458 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18763-9 ID - ref1 ER -