Source awareness and vaccine attitudes: evaluation of a novel technique for combating disinformation

Previous studies on combating disinformation have focused on methods based on rational argumentation like correcting misinformation or on news and media and literacy. However, these methods have proved to be less effective when strong emotions are involved. The presented research tested the effectiveness of a new technique for combating anti-vaccine disinformation: making people aware that most anti-vaccine disinformation comes from a source that evokes strongly negative emotions. Such a technique, appealing to emotions rather than rationality, has never been tested before. A Pilot Study, two Experiments, and a Control Study, with N = 1436 participants (486 males, 432 females) aged 18–64, mostly of Polish nationality, were run after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The participants read articles about Russian anti-vaccine propaganda or neutral ones. Then, their readiness to vaccinate was tested. The results of the first experiment indicated that people who read articles about Russian anti-vaccine propaganda had more positive attitudes towards vaccinations than those who read neutral articles. However, the effect was not replicated in the second experiment. The possible reasons for this lack of replication are discussed, one of which was excluded in a Control Study. Nevertheless, the results encourage further studies in this direction.