Online Health Misinformation and Corrective Messages in China: A Comparison of Message Features

Delivering corrective messages is a viable way to combat online health misinformation. However, the effectiveness of corrective messages online relies heavily on their scope of diffusion. Evidence shows that misinformation can be more viral than accurate information, resulting in an effectiveness gap. Differences in message features between health misinformation and corrective messages may be one contributing factor to the effectiveness gap. Guided by research on health message features that drive selection and transmission, this study content-analyzed the features of online health misinformation and their corresponding corrective messages on three major misinformation-correcting platforms in China. Results show that compared to corrective messages, online health misinformation demonstrated higher certainty levels and included more declarative sentences in the title, more emotional appeals, fewer exemplars, and fewer credible sources. Implications for online health corrective message design and future studies are discussed.