Popping misinformation bubbles: persona-informed style-based messaging in Facebook ad experiments

Abstract

Misinformation is often viewed as an information problem, attributed to people’s poor understanding of consensus-based facts. While this is a contributing factor, we propose that misinformation and conspiracy are also communicated differently to their audiences. Can we better reach these audiences by matching the styles used in online communities? We present the findings of a multiple Facebook ad study in which we tailored consensus-based messages to communication styles associated with three persona-informed Facebook audiences. Our results demonstrate that styled messages led to higher engagement among targeted Facebook audiences than the neutral-toned variants. We introduce our concept of the misinformation ecosystem, based on our Australian dataset, as a way of understanding online communities and their communication styles, and develop three personas whose demographic and interest profiles informed the Facebook ad audiences used in our experiment. Our findings suggest that styled messaging about consensus-based information can better engage audiences associated with vulnerable communities otherwise resistant to external influence, providing considerable implications about possible future interventions to counter misinformation.