Selçuk İletişim (Apr 2021)
Perceived Competence in Detecting Mis- and Disinformation Online: Reconsidering the Third Person Effect
Abstract
The third person effect coined by Davison, provides a different perspective from media effect theories as it mainly deals with beliefs about media effects rather than its direct influence on individuals. The literature on TPE has demonstrated a broad perspective in exploring perceptual bias in various media contexts as well as conditions to magnify TPE. The issue of digital disinformation has increased the number of studies as it has provided a different perspective in context of the third person effect. The threat caused by COVID-19 has led an increase in health news consumption causing a wide spread of mis/disinformation about the origin, prevention and treatment of the pandemic. Considering source credibility as a moderator in testing TPE hypothesis, people will likely to think that mis-and disinformation online will have a greater effect on others and may depend on their perceived competence in spotting mis- and disinformation online when judging its effect on oneself and others. Therefore, the research aims at exploring the way individuals perceive the effects of health-related mis/disinformation and the possible variables influencing TPE.A survey-based study of 767 Turkish internet users was conducted in January 2021. Paired simple T-test to explore third person effect and hierarchical regression analysis to investigate factors associated with TPE were performed. Results revealed that biased third-person effects existed regarding health related mis/disinformation online and perceived competence to detect mis/disinformation online and exposure to digital mis/disinformation were the significant predictors of TPE.
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