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How Extreme Sentiment Promotes the Spread of Health Misinformation: Structure and Characteristics
Zhao, Youlin; Tang, Wanqing; Zhou, Tingting
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132975
Description
- Title
- How Extreme Sentiment Promotes the Spread of Health Misinformation: Structure and Characteristics
- Author(s)
- Zhao, Youlin
- Tang, Wanqing
- Zhou, Tingting
- Issue Date
- 2026-03-12
- Keyword(s)
- Extreme sentiment
- Health misinformation
- Information cascade
- Information diffusion
- Abstract
- Background. The rapid growth of social media has intensified the diffusion of health misinformation, which often relies on emotionally charged narratives. Extreme sentiment, reflecting highly polarized evaluations, is prevalent online and has been shown to amplify both visibility and potential social harm, making its role in information diffusion a critical research concern. Method. Using the 2025 measles outbreak as an empirical case, this study applies a dual-dimensional analytical framework that integrates diffusion structure and diffusion characteristics to examine the role of extreme sentiment in health misinformation diffusion. Diffusion structure is captured through information cascades, while diffusion characteristics are assessed by comparing reposts, replies and likes across extreme and normal sentiments. Results. The results show that extreme sentiment accelerates early-stage diffusion by enhancing urgency, reinforcing emotional alignment that deepens cascades, and triggering large-scale bursts during polarity shifts. Tweets containing extreme sentiment also consistently attract higher levels of reposting, replying, and liking, while no significant differences are observed between positive and negative extreme sentiments. Conclusions. The findings demonstrate that extreme sentiment is closely associated with faster expansion, longer duration, and greater efficiency of diffusion, highlighting the importance of monitoring sentiment intensity for early risk detection and targeted governance of health misinformation.
- Publisher
- iSchools
- Series/Report Name or Number
- iConference 2026 Proceedings
- Type of Resource
- Other
- Genre of Resource
- Conference Poster
- Language
- eng
- Permalink
- https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132975
- Copyright and License Information
- Copyright 2026 is held by Youlin Zhao, Wanqing Tang, and Tingting Zhou. Copyright permissions, when appropriate, must be obtained directly from the authors.
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