Beyond Factual Correction: Integrating Meta-Cognitive Deficits Into the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model to Address HPV Misperception

Overconfidence, explained by the Dunning–Kruger effect (DKE), hinders engagement with corrective health information. Integrating the DKE with Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model, a 2 (meta-cognitive vs. informational intervention) × 2 (simple rebuttal vs. factual elaboration) experiment examined human papillomavirus misperceptions. Results show that meta-cognitive interventions limited subjective knowledge, effectively boosting information insufficiency. Conversely, informational inoculation increased subjective knowledge, inadvertently suppressing the insufficiency gap essential for motivation. Path modeling confirmed that information insufficiency predicts seeking and preventive intentions. We demonstrate that overcoming overconfidence requires recalibrating knowledge perceptions rather than merely providing facts, establishing meta-cognition as a contingent condition for RISP.