Susceptibility of Online Users to Persuasive Strategies to Curb the Spread of Misinformation

Abstract

The spread of misinformation in online social media is a cause of concern to stakeholders. With many people going online for information about many aspects of their lives, any misinformation presented online can have detrimental effects on those that consume it. The use of persuasive strategies to curb misinformation online is an ongoing research area. There is little or no knowledge of how persuasive strategies can be applied to the different types of social media users to curb the spread of misinformation. To contribute to research in this area, we present the preliminary results of an ongoing user study of currently 113 social media users which investigates which type of social media users will likely spread misinformation and what persuasive strategies will likely influence the different types of social media users. We developed and tested a global model using structural equation modelling. Our results suggest that people that use social media because of friendship and role-playing are influenced by social proof while people who use social media to seek for relationships are influenced by liking and are likely to spread misinformation in the future.