Linguistic characteristics and the dissemination of misinformation in social media: The moderating effect of information richness

Highlights：

• Compared to accurate information, the more persuasive and uncertainty words contained in misinformation, it is more likely to be disseminated, while the effect of emotional and comparative words is contrary.

• As for information richness, when the misinformation that includes images, the effects of persuasive, negative emotion, comparative, and uncertainty words are strengthened, and when the misinformation that includes videos, the effects of persuasive and uncertainty words are weakened.

• The results of robustness check by using the Fakenewsnet data set are consistent with our hypothesis, indicating that the four linguistic characteristics proposed by this study are also suitable for the dissemination of misinformation in English.

摘要

•This study explores the dissemination mechanism of misinformation based on its linguistic characteristics (including persuasive words, emotional words, comparative words, and uncertainty words) in social media.•Compared to accurate information, the more persuasive and uncertainty words contained in misinformation, it is more likely to be disseminated, while the effect of emotional and comparative words is contrary.•As for information richness, when the misinformation that includes images, the effects of persuasive, negative emotion, comparative, and uncertainty words are strengthened, and when the misinformation that includes videos, the effects of persuasive and uncertainty words are weakened.•The results of robustness check by using the Fakenewsnet data set are consistent with our hypothesis, indicating that the four linguistic characteristics proposed by this study are also suitable for the dissemination of misinformation in English.