How Visual Illusions Boost Sharing of Misinformation: Parallel and Sequential Mediations by Triggered Situational Interest and Truthiness

Visual illusions are a popular scientific topic frequently shared on social media. When shared online, illusion images are usually accompanied by explanatory statements, which often contain misinformation. Although such posts combining illusion images and misinformation are widely shared, the psychological mechanism underlying this sharing remains unclear. To address this issue, we hypothesized that illusory experiences would shape user’s intention to share misinformation primarily through two mediators: user interest (triggered situational interest) and truthiness. In an online experiment, participants viewed posts that paired an illusion image with explanatory descriptions containing a brief misinformation statement. They then rated their illusory experience, user interest, truthiness, and intention to share. Mediation analysis revealed that illusory experience had a significant total effect on intention to share whereas its direct effect was not significant. Instead, the illusory experience indirectly influenced the intention to share through the two mediators. The pathway via user interest was the strongest, indicating that an increase in triggered situational interest was the principal driver of sharing intentions. The pathway via truthiness was weaker but still significant, suggesting a secondary role of truthiness in shaping sharing intentions. Regarding supplementary factors, neither valence (positive vs. negative) nor presentation type (original vs. repost) exerted significant effects on the outcomes. Overall, the findings indicate that illusory experience influences information-sharing behavior indirectly through psychological mediators, underscoring the importance of considering individual perceptual experience when accounting for misinformation sharing on social media.