How To Reduce People’s Trust In Online Health Rumors?The Impact Of Heuristic-systematic Cues And Electronic Health Literacy Promotion Strategies On Rumor Trust

The long-term dissemination of health rumors on the Internet can affect people’s health beliefs,which in turn can impact their health decisions.Therefore,it is critical to intervene in rumors and reduce people’s trust in them.This study uses three experimental designs to explore the effectiveness of different intervention strategies in reducing trust in online health rumors.In Studies 1 and 2,two cues were designed using the heuristic-systematic processing model to investigate the impact of heuristic and systematic cues on trust in Internet health rumors.In the third study,the effects of intervention promotion training on electronic health literacy promotion and individual trust in online health rumors were examined.Study 1 we used expert consensus and non-expert consensus as two heuristic cues and employed a within-subject design with a 2(rumor type: hope,fear)X2(consensus information: expert consensus,non-expert consensus).The results showed that expert consensus can effectively reduce trust in online health rumors,particularly those that evoke fear.Study 2 we used expert evidence as a heuristic cue and non-expert evidence as a systematic cue,and employed a within-subject design with a 2(rumor type: hope,fear)X2(cue type: expert evidence,non-expert evidence).The results showed that non-expert evidence was more effective than expert evidence in reducing trust in online health rumors.In study 3,we provided promotion training to individuals with low e-health literacy.The results showed that the reading training significantly improved individuals’ e-health literacy level.Compared to the control group,individuals with improved e-health literacy showed a lower level of trust in online health rumors.In summary,this study found that providing systematic cues with arguments can reduce trust in online health rumors after individual exposure.Additionally,improving e-health literacy before exposure to online health rumors can enhance individuals’ ability to discern between rumors and factual information.