conspiracy theories; COVID-19; Misinformation; online engagement; topic diversity; Conspiracy theory; Health crisis; Multi-topic; News sources; Online engagement; Social media; Topic diversity; User levels; Well being; Social Sciences (miscellaneous); Human-Computer Interaction; Computer Networks and Communications; cs.SI; Physics - Physics and Society
Abstract :
[en] Online engagement with misinformation threatens societal well-being, particularly during health crises when susceptibility to misinformation is heightened in a multi-topic context. Here, we focus on the COVID-19 pandemic and address a critical gap in understanding engagement with multi-topic misinformation on social media at two user levels: news source sharers (who post news items) and post viewers (who engage with news posts). To this end, we analyze 7273 fact-checked source news items and their associated posts on X through the lens of topic diversity and conspiracy theories. We find that false news, especially those containing conspiracy theories, exhibits higher topic diversity than true news. At news source sharer level, false news has a longer lifetime and receives more posts on X than true news, with conspiracy theories further extending its longevity. However, topic diversity does not significantly influence news source sharers’ engagement. At post viewer level, contrary to news source sharer level, posts characterized by heightened topic diversity receive more reposts, likes, and replies. Notably, post viewers tend to engage more with misinformation containing conspiracy narratives: false news posts that contain conspiracy theories, on average, receive 40.8% more reposts, 45.2% more likes, and 44.1% more replies compared to those without conspiracy theories. Our findings suggest that news source sharers and post viewers exhibit distinct engagement patterns on X, offering valuable insights into refining misinformation interventions at these two user levels.
Research center :
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) > IRiSC - Socio-Technical Cybersecurity
Disciplines :
Computer science
Author, co-author :
CHUAI, Yuwei ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SNT) > IRiSC
Zhao, Jichang ; Beihang University, China
LENZINI, Gabriele ; University of Luxembourg > Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SNT) > IRiSC
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
From News Source Sharers to Post Viewers: How Topic Diversity and Conspiracy Theories Shape Engagement With Misinformation During a Health Crisis
Publication date :
16 October 2025
Journal title :
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
This research is supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) and Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), as part of the project REgulatory Solutions to MitigatE DISinformation (REMEDIS), grant ref. INTER_FNRS_21_16554939_REMEDIS.
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