Unraveling the Intricacies Behind the Spread of Health Misinformation

Date of Award

8-22-2025

Date Published

September 2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Mass Communications

Advisor(s)

Carol Liebler

Keywords

fake news;infectious disease;literacy;motivation;sharing;verification

Abstract

The rise of social media made it easier for health misinformation to spread, creating serious challenges for society, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many explanations focused on the lack of news literacy, but this view oversimplified the issue and ignored the nuances that shaped how people engaged with health information online. This study explored the reasons behind why social media users chose to verify or share health information, going beyond the traditional focus on news literacy. This study applied the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the Uses and Gratifications (U&G) approach, and the concept of Cognitive Overload as complementary theoretical lenses to investigate factors influencing individuals’ decision-making. It examined cognition (awareness, attitudes, social norms, and perceived control), user-media interaction (socialization, entertainment, seeking information, altruism, and passing time), and affective variables (cyberchondria, fear of missing out, and fatigue) in relation to verification and sharing behaviors. The research involved an online experiment in which 455 participants in total were randomly assigned to read one of three health news articles that varied in authenticity, fully truthful, partially fabricated, or entirely false. Findings reveal that while TPB and U&G variables could partly explain why people shared health information, they were less effective in predicting verification behaviors, especially when the information was entirely true or entirely false. This result suggests that the motivations behind verifying and sharing health information were quite different. This study also highlights the complexity of verification: a great percentage of participants compared information against sources they had a personal attachment to rather than traditional expert sources, yet they even performed better in identifying certain indicators of fake news. In terms of methodology, the experimental design helped reduce social desirability bias, a common issue in survey or interview-based research on this topic. Overall, this research provides empirical and novel insights into the cognitive, emotional, operational, and sociodemographic dynamics behind the spread of health misinformation and offers guidance for designing more effective intervention strategies.

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