Abstract
Low acceptance of climate change and low support for its mitigation efforts can be due to public misconceptions towards climate change. Climate skeptics use a communication strategy of fake experts to spread misinformation through spokespersons who are not experts in the field. Inoculation can be a protective approach for tackling the misinformation’s effect. Previous research was conducted in the United States and Germany and was never conducted in Africa. This study aimed to complement the previous research findings with results for Egypt by replication an experiment by Cook et al. with a 2 × 2 between-subjects design. A total of 300 participants were recruited into the study and they were randomized into four stimuli groups (control, misinformation, inoculation, and inoculation + misinformation). A total of 274 eligible participants’ data was analyzed. The study explored climate change misinformation’s impact on the participants and tested an inoculation stimulus that could protect against misinformation pre-emptively. The effect of the difference in the participants’ demographics and the interactions with the study stimuli were also analyzed. The difference in the study stimuli had a significant effect on the participants for the perceived scientific consensus. The misinformation stimulus had a significant negative effect. The inoculation-only stimulus significantly neutralized the misinformation’s effect for both the perceived scientific consensus and the scientific consensus influence. The study also found that the differences in the sex, age, education level, and educational background of the participants had significant effects and significant interactions with the study’s stimuli on the study’s dependent variables.
School
School of Sciences and Engineering
Department
Institute of Global Health & Human Ecology
Degree Name
MA in Global Public Health
Graduation Date
Summer 6-15-2023
Submission Date
5-21-2023
First Advisor
Mohamed Salama
Committee Member 1
Hassan ElFawal
Committee Member 2
Harris Eyre
Committee Member 3
Sungsoo Chun
Extent
140 p
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval
Approval has been obtained for this item
Recommended Citation
APA Citation
Abdalla, J.
(2023).Inoculation for Neutralizing Misinformation: Replication of an Experiment on the Effect of the Fake Experts’ Strategy in Climate Change Communication’s Context [Master's Thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain.
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2118
MLA Citation
Abdalla, Joseph. Inoculation for Neutralizing Misinformation: Replication of an Experiment on the Effect of the Fake Experts’ Strategy in Climate Change Communication’s Context. 2023. American University in Cairo, Master's Thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain.
https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/2118