Linguistics

Philosophy

Anecdote

Social psychology

Public relations

Computer security

Narrative

Source credibility

Data mining

Computer science

Internet privacy

Situational ethics

Psychology

Political science

Infographic

Misinformation

Persuasion

Credibility

Public Relations Review

This study investigated the efficacy of narratives in countering vaccine-related narrative misinformation on Facebook. Two narrative counter strategies to address misinformation about the safety of the MMR vaccine (i.e., personal stories of uneventful vaccinations where a parent talks about how their child was vaccinated and no injury happened to them, and narratives of anti-vax to pro-vax conversions, where a former anti-vaccine parent narrates their experience of their child getting sick with a vaccine-preventable disease and thus realizing the importance of vaccines) were compared to a non-narrative counter message (an infographic, in the case of the present study) in increasing belief in the counter, reducing vaccine misinformation, and increasing MMR vaccination intentions. Second, we tested a theoretically grounded model predicting MMR vaccination intentions and misinformation amplification likelihood, combining pre-existing issue-specific situational motivation in problem solving with perceived counter and misinformation source credibility and message effects. Implications for public relations theory are discussed.

Narrative counters: Understanding the efficacy of narratives in combating anecdote-based vaccine misinformation