Going viral: Sharing of misinformation by social media influencers

Abstract

This paper tackles the issue of health and well-being misinformation, the dissemination of false or misleading information related to medical treatments, diseases, mental health, nutrition, exercise or general well-being, propagated by social media influencers. It investigates the virality of misinformation posts by TikTok and Instagram influencers exploring users’ appraisals and their sharing tendencies. Grounded in social influence and cognitive appraisal theories (CAT), three online experimental studies dissect the dynamics of virality, user comments and their effects on perceived deception, parasocial interaction and sharing intent. The results of Study 1 demonstrate heightened post virality reduces perceived deception, fostering stronger parasocial connections and sharing intentions. Conversely, lower virality levels heighten deception perceptions. In Study 2, critical comments are shown to enhance deception in high virality posts. Whereas supportive comments are shown to enhance the indirect effect of low virality posts on sharing intentions, via deception and parasocial interaction. The study contributes by demonstrating how social influence theory and CAT together explain how social media influencer misinformation posts based on their virality and user responses are likely to be shared and what consumer appraisals explain this effect. It provides directions of how marketers can tackle this issue.