Digital disinformation disrupts regeneration: impacts of micro-video narratives on pluripotent stem-cell therapy literacy, bioethical concern, and enrollment intentions
July 2
Pluripotent stem-cell (PSC) rejuvenation clips on short-form video platforms are widely consumed by university cohorts, yet inaccurate claims about PSC biology dominate these feeds. This experiment quantified how such PSC disinformation shapes scientific literacy, bioethical concern, and willingness to pursue putative therapies.
A two-phase protocol was implemented. First, a pilot study systematically coded extant PSC videos to generate ecologically valid stimuli and to establish procedural feasibility. In the main experiment, treatment-naïve undergraduates (N = 490) were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: (1) accurate PSC information, (2) PSC misinformation, or (3) non-regenerative control content. Baseline PSC literacy was assessed prior to viewing. Immediately after exposure, participants completed instruments measuring PSC knowledge, perceived bioethical risk, and intention to enroll in PSC-based interventions.
Relative to controls, viewers of PSC misinformation demonstrated significantly poorer objective knowledge yet reported heightened confidence in their understanding of PSC science (p < 0.001). By contrast, exposure to accurate clips yielded higher knowledge scores and equally elevated confidence (p < 0.001). The misinformation group endorsed stronger intentions to pursue both rigorously validated and speculative PSC procedures (p < 0.01). Content condition did not significantly alter bioethical concern. Perceived entertainment value of the clips correlated negatively with knowledge accuracy and positively with enrollment intentions (p < 0.05).
Short-form video disinformation erodes PSC literacy while inflating subjective certainty and therapeutic appetence. These findings highlight an emerging threat to evidence-based regenerative medicine and underscore the urgency of real-time corrective strategies at the public-communication interface.