JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The rapidly evolving digital environment of the social media era increases the reach of both quality health information and misinformation. Platforms such as YouTube enable easy sharing of attractive, if not always evidence-based, videos with large personal networks as well as the general public. While much research has focused on characterizing health misinformation online, it has not sufficiently focused on describing and measuring individuals’ information competencies that build resilience.

Objective:

This study 1) assesses individuals’ willingness to share a non-evidence-based YouTube video about strengthening the immune system, 2) describes types of evidence that individuals view as supportive of the claim by the video, and 3) relates information-sharing behavior to several information competencies: information literacy, science literacy, knowledge of the immune system, interpersonal trust, and trust in health authority.

Methods:

The study employs an online survey methodology with 150 individuals across the United States. Participants were asked to watch a YouTube excerpt from a morning TV show featuring a wellness pharmacy representative promoting an immunity-boosting dietary supplement produced by his company; answer questions about the video and say whether they would share it with a cousin who was frequently sick; and complete instruments pertaining to the information competencies outlined in the objectives.

Results:

Most participants (105 out of 150) said that they would share the video with their cousin. Their confidence in the supplement would be further boosted by a friend’s recommendations, positive reviews on a crowdsourcing website, and statements of uncited effectiveness studies on the producer’s website. While all information literacy competencies analyzed in this study had a statistically significant relationship with the outcome, each was also highly correlated with each other. Information literacy and interpersonal trust independently predicted the largest amount of variance in the intent to share the video (17% and 16%). Interpersonal trust was negatively related to the willingness to share the video. Science literacy explained 7% of the variance.

Conclusions:

People are vulnerable to online misinformation and are likely to propagate it online. Information literacy and science literacy are associated with lesser vulnerability to misinformation and lesser propensity to spread it. Of the two, information literacy holds the greater promise as an intervention target. Understanding the role of different kinds of trust on information sharing merits further research.