Misinformation and other elements in HPV vaccine tweets: an experimental comparison

• Published in: Journal of behavioral medicine Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 310 - 319
• Main Authors: Calo, William A., Gilkey, Melissa B., Shah, Parth D., Dyer, Anne-Marie, Margolis, Marjorie A., Dailey, Susan Alton, Brewer, Noel T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.06.2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Between-subjects design; Communication; Factorial experiments; False information; Family Medicine; General Practice; Health aspects; Health behavior; Health Psychology; Human papillomavirus; Humans; Immunization; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Microblogs; Misinformation; Motivation; Papillomavirus Infections - prevention & control; Papillomavirus Vaccines; Psychological aspects; Risk perception; Social aspects; Social Media; Social networks; Storytelling; Vaccination; Vaccines; United States; Vaccine misinformation; Perceived risk; Motivation; Human papillomavirus vaccination; Social media
• DOI: 10.1007/s10865-021-00203-3
• ISSN: 0160-7715; 1573-3521

Our study examined how misinformation and other elements of social media messages affect antecedents to human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination of adolescents. In 2017–2018, we randomly assigned a national sample of 1206 U.S. parents of adolescents to view one tweet using a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial experiment. The 16 experimental tweets varied four messaging elements: misinformation (misinformation or not), source (person or organization), narrative style (storytelling or scientific data), and topic (effectiveness or safety). Parents reported their motivation to vaccinate (primary outcome), trust in social media content, and perceived risk about HPV-related diseases. Tweets without misinformation elicited higher HPV vaccine motivation than tweets with misinformation (25% vs. 5%, OR = 6.60, 95% CI:4.05, 10.75). Motivation was higher for tweets from organizations versus persons (20% vs. 10%, OR = 2.47, 95% CI:1.52, 4.03) and about effectiveness versus safety (20% vs. 10%, OR = 2.03, 95% CI:1.24, 3.30). Tweets with misinformation produced lower trust and higher perceived risk (both p  < .01), with impact varying depending on source and topic. In conclusion, misinformation was the most potent social media messaging element. It may undermine progress in HPV vaccination.