Effect of a Social Media-Based Counselling Intervention in Countering Fake News on COVID-19 Vaccine in Nigeria

"[S]ocial media-based counselling can be an effective tool for health communication and health promotion during pandemics like COVID-19."

The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified fake news - any information that is unverified, untruthful, or false - as one of the problems that makes information sharing on COVID-19 difficult. The objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of a social-media-based counselling intervention in countering the impact of fake news on COVID-19 vaccine among social media users in Nigeria, a country with long history of vaccine hesitancy and even outright rejection.

In developing their hypotheses, the researchers made use of Cognitive Dissonance Theory (CDT) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). CDT suggests that when individuals hold two or more cognitions that are contradictory, they will feel an unpleasant state (dissonance) until they are able to resolve this state by altering their cognitions. TPB posits that behaviors are immediately determined by behavioral intentions, which in turn are determined by a combination of three factors: attitude toward the behaviour, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control.

They then conducted two experiments, each of which had a control group:

1. The researchers gave the 470 Nigerian study participants a questionnaire to determine their perception and behaviour intentions regarding COVID-19 vaccine, which was not yet available in the country at the time. They then exposed them to fake news on the COVID-19 vaccine through a WhatsApp group that was created for the purposes of the study. Fake news included messages that the vaccine can kill, that it is a way of injecting microchips into Africans, and that it is not effective.
2. The researchers exposed 235 of the respondents to a social-media-based (WhatsApp) counselling intervention. The respondents were counselled on the importance of the COVID-19 vaccine as a way of combating the spread of the virus. Respondents were told that the vaccine was safe and necessary to protect them against COVID-19.

The researchers found that respondents who were exposed to fake news reported greater negative perceptions about COVID-19 vaccine than their counterparts in the control group. They also found that as a result of the counselling intervention, the respondents in the treatment group reported more positive perceptions regarding the COVID-19 vaccine (e.g., they scored higher regarding behaviour intention to make themselves available for COVID-19 vaccination). Meanwhile, their counterparts in the control group who were earlier exposed to fake news on COVID-19 did not significantly change their perceptions.

Theoretical implications include:

• Regarding the CDT, when social media users are exposed to cognition of COVID-19 vaccine, they will very likely go through an internal process and conclude that the fake news they have received about COVID-19 is true. However, when they are exposed to counselling on the benefits of COVID-19 vaccine, they will go through a point of dissonance and eventually change perception as a strategy to achieve consonance. Therefore, the current study has provided information that may be used to explain the CDT, especially in the light of fake news often circulated through different social media platforms.
• Regarding the TPB, the results show that behavioural intention can be influenced by the quality of information available to a person. For example, the respondents of the study who did not have the opportunity to be exposed to the counselling intervention did not get to know that the fake news contents they were exposed to were inaccurate; hence, they did not indicate readiness to make themselves available for vaccination. On the contrary, respondents in the treatment group who were exposed to accurate information about COVID-19 vaccine reported greater readiness to receive the jab. Therefore, quality of information is an important consideration when examining behavioural intention.

The researchers reflect on the fact that counselling sessions can be held through mediated channels, not only through face-to-face interaction. For future research on the topic investigated here, however, it may be useful to examine other intervention techniques, such as small-group communication.

In conclusion: "This study has highlighted the importance of counselling in countering fake news within the context of health promotion. This approach is yet to receive significant attention in literature, especially from developing countries."