How Would I Be Perceived If I Challenge Individuals Sharing Misinformation? Exploring Misperceptions in the UK and Arab Samples and the Potential for the Social Norms Approach

Research conducted in the UK explored the presence of misperceptions, revealing that people anticipated more negative consequences for challenging misinformation on social media. These misperceptions include the anticipation of harming relationships, causing embarrassment and offense to others, the belief that challenging may not yield success and the perception that such behaviour is unacceptable. As the UK culture is characterised as individualistic, we replicated this investigation in a collectivistic culture-Arab societies. Our aim is to explore the differences and similarities of these misperceptions across cultures and to examine whether applying the social norms approach can be a solution to address the inaction towards challenging misinformation. Comparing the UK (N = 250) and Arabs (N = 212), we showed that, in both cultures there are misperceptions towards challenging misinformation. While misperceptions regarding concerning relationship costs and futility remain consistent across cultures the concerns about causing harm to others and the acceptability of the behaviour differ. Participants in the UK show a higher concern about offense or embarrassment, in contrast, participants in Arab countries exhibit higher misperceptions about injunctive norms, perceiving challenging misinformation as less socially acceptable than it actually is. This study also shows that participants’ likelihood to challenge misinformation is influenced by their misperceptions about potential harm to others and perceived injunctive norms. These findings present an opportunity to apply the social norms approach to behaviour change by addressing these misperceptions. Messages emphasising social acceptability of correcting misinformation and highlighting that people appreciate being corrected could serve as powerful tools to encourage users to challenge misinformation.