Gender as a moderating variable in online misinformation acceptance during COVID-19

Ahmed Mansoori; Khalaf Tahat; Dina Tahat; Mohammad Habes; Said A Salloum; Hesham Mesbah; Mokhtar Elareshi

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19425

Gender as a moderating variable in online misinformation acceptance during COVID-19

Heliyon. 2023 Aug 29;9(9):e19425. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19425. eCollection 2023 Sep.

Authors

Ahmed Mansoori¹, Khalaf Tahat¹, Dina Tahat², Mohammad Habes³, Said A Salloum^{1

4}, Hesham Mesbah⁵, Mokhtar Elareshi⁶

Affiliations

¹ Media & Creative Industries Department, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.
² Education & Humanities Sciences College, Al Ain University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.
³ Radio & TV Department, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.
⁴ School of Science, Engineering, and Environment, University of Salford, UK.
⁵ Dpartment of Communication, Rollins College, Florida, USA.
⁶ Communication College, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Abstract

Misinformation remained a critical consideration during the COVID-19 that further cultivated fears leading to strong unrest among the public globally. This study clarifies certain misconceptions related to the pandemic by investigating whether factors such as altruism, entertainment, information-sharing, information-seeking, comprehensibility have impact on COVID-19 misinformation acceptance and sharing it in the UAE culture, with gender as a moderating factor. An online survey (google.com) was used, with a sample of 200 university students, and analyzed using PLS-SEM software to determine the effects of constructed factors. The findings indicated that entertainment, information-sharing, and information-seeking factors have impact on sharing COVID-19 misinformation, while comprehensibility has impact on acceptance of misinformation. Interestingly, gender was found to have no impact on all the constructed factors, suggesting that other moderating factors (e.g., age) need to be considered in future research. Generally, online users need to learn how to verify online information that they receive/share on other social media, especially regarding health concern.

Keywords: Altruism; COVID-19; Entertainment; Information-seeking; Information-sharing; Misinformation.