Research Preprint: “(Mis)perceptions and Engagement on Twitter: COVID-19 Vaccine Rumors on Efficacy and Mass Immunization Effort”

The following research article (preprint) was recently shared on arXiv.

Title

(Mis)perceptions and Engagement on Twitter: COVID-19 Vaccine Rumors on Efficacy and Mass Immunization Effort

Authors

Filipo Sharevski
DePaul University

Allice Huff
DePaul University

Peter Jachim
DePaul University

Emma Pieroni
DePaul University

Source

via arXiv
arXiv:2111.05815
November 10, 2021

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a 606-participant study where we analyzed the perception and engagement effects of COVID-19 vaccine rumours on Twitter pertaining to (a) vaccine efficacy; and (b) mass immunization efforts in the United States. Misperceptions regarding vaccine efficacy were successfully induced through simple content alterations and the addition of popular anti COVID-19 hashtags to otherwise valid Twitter content. Twitter’s misinformation contextual tags caused a “backfire effect” for the skeptic, vaccine-hesitant reinforcing their opposition stance. While the majority of the participants staunchly refrain from engaging with the COVID-19 rumours, the skeptic, vaccine-hesitant ones were open to comment, re-tweet, like and share the vaccine efficacy rumors. We discuss the implications of our results in the context of broadening the effort for dispelling rumors about COVID-19 on social media.

Direct to Full Text Article
8 pages; PDF.

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