Journal articles on the topic 'Misinformation beliefs'
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1
Porter, Ethan, and Thomas J. Wood. "The global effectiveness of fact-checking: Evidence from simultaneous experiments in Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United Kingdom." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, no. 37 (September 10, 2021): e2104235118. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2104235118.
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The spread of misinformation is a global phenomenon, with implications for elections, state-sanctioned violence, and health outcomes. Yet, even though scholars have investigated the capacity of fact-checking to reduce belief in misinformation, little evidence exists on the global effectiveness of this approach. We describe fact-checking experiments conducted simultaneously in Argentina, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, in which we studied whether fact-checking can durably reduce belief in misinformation. In total, we evaluated 22 fact-checks, including two that were tested in all four countries. Fact-checking reduced belief in misinformation, with most effects still apparent more than 2 wk later. A meta-analytic procedure indicates that fact-checks reduced belief in misinformation by at least 0.59 points on a 5-point scale. Exposure to misinformation, however, only increased false beliefs by less than 0.07 points on the same scale. Across continents, fact-checks reduce belief in misinformation, often durably so.
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Jerit, Jennifer, and Yangzi Zhao. "Political Misinformation." Annual Review of Political Science 23, no. 1 (May 11, 2020): 77–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-050718-032814.
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Misinformation occurs when people hold incorrect factual beliefs and do so confidently. The problem, first conceptualized by Kuklinski and colleagues in 2000, plagues political systems and is exceedingly difficult to correct. In this review, we assess the empirical literature on political misinformation in the United States and consider what scholars have learned since the publication of that early study. We conclude that research on this topic has developed unevenly. Over time, scholars have elaborated on the psychological origins of political misinformation, and this work has cumulated in a productive way. By contrast, although there is an extensive body of research on how to correct misinformation, this literature is less coherent in its recommendations. Finally, a nascent line of research asks whether people's reports of their factual beliefs are genuine or are instead a form of partisan cheerleading. Overall, scholarly research on political misinformation illustrates the many challenges inherent in representative democracy.
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Wahlheim, Christopher N., Timothy R. Alexander, and Carson D. Peske. "Reminders of Everyday Misinformation Statements Can Enhance Memory for and Beliefs in Corrections of Those Statements in the Short Term." Psychological Science 31, no. 10 (September 25, 2020): 1325–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797620952797.
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Fake-news exposure can cause misinformation to be mistakenly remembered and believed. In two experiments ( Ns = 96), we examined whether reminders of misinformation could improve memory for and beliefs in corrections. Subjects read factual statements and misinformation statements taken from news websites and then read statements that corrected the misinformation. Misinformation reminders appeared before some corrections but not others. Subjects then attempted to recall facts, indicated their belief in those recalls, and indicated whether they remembered corrections and misinformation. In Experiment 1, we did not constrain subjects’ report criteria. But in Experiment 2, we encouraged conservative reporting by instructing subjects to report only information they believed to be true. Reminders increased recall and belief accuracy. These benefits were greater both when misinformation was recollected and when subjects remembered that corrections had occurred. These findings demonstrate one situation in which misinformation reminders can diminish the negative effects of fake-news exposure in the short term.
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Enders, Adam M., Joseph Uscinski, Casey Klofstad, and Justin Stoler. "On the relationship between conspiracy theory beliefs, misinformation, and vaccine hesitancy." PLOS ONE 17, no. 10 (October 26, 2022): e0276082. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0276082.
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At the time of writing, nearly one hundred published studies demonstrate that beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and misinformation are negatively associated with COVID-19 preventive behaviors. These correlational findings are often interpreted as evidence that beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation are exogenous factors that shape human behavior, such as forgoing vaccination. This interpretation has motivated researchers to develop methods for “prebunking,” “debunking,” or otherwise limiting the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation online. However, the robust literatures on conspiracy theory beliefs, health behaviors, and media effects lead us to question whether beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation should be treated as exogenous to vaccine hesitancy and refusal. Employing U.S. survey data (n = 2,065) from July 2021, we show that beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and misinformation are not only related to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and refusal, but also strongly associated with the same psychological, social, and political motivations theorized to drive COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and refusal. These findings suggest that beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation might not always be an exogenous cause, but rather a manifestation of the same factors that lead to vaccine hesitancy and refusal. We conclude by encouraging researchers to carefully consider modeling choices and imploring practitioners to refocus on the worldviews, personality traits, and political orientations that underlie both health-related behaviors and beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation.
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Cortina, Jeronimo, and Brandon Rottinghaus. "Conspiratorial thinking in the Latino community on the 2020 election." Research & Politics 9, no. 1 (January 2022): 205316802210835. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/20531680221083535.
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Political knowledge is the cornerstone of a functional representative democracy, but belief in conspiracy theories disrupts that connection and may be dangerous with consequences for democracy. Pundits and politicians have speculated about the cause and effect of misinformation and conspiracy theories, but no work has examined what causes beliefs in conspiracy theories or misinformation among Latinos specifically. In a unique survey of Texas Latinos prior to the 2020 election, we find belief in conspiracy theories is most related to support for Donald Trump and greater reliance on Spanish-language media and social media. The results highlight how conspiratorial thinking manifests in specific ethnic groups and the need to counter those beliefs in Spanish-language media.
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Lee, Jung Jae, Kyung-Ah Kang, Man Ping Wang, Sheng Zhi Zhao, Janet Yuen Ha Wong, Siobhan O'Connor, Sook Ching Yang, and Sunhwa Shin. "Associations Between COVID-19 Misinformation Exposure and Belief With COVID-19 Knowledge and Preventive Behaviors: Cross-Sectional Online Study." Journal of Medical Internet Research 22, no. 11 (November 13, 2020): e22205. http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/22205.
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Background Online misinformation proliferation during the COVID-19 pandemic has become a major public health concern. Objective We aimed to assess the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation exposure and beliefs, associated factors including psychological distress with misinformation exposure, and the associations between COVID-19 knowledge and number of preventive behaviors. Methods A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 1049 South Korean adults in April 2020. Respondents were asked about receiving COVID-19 misinformation using 12 items identified by the World Health Organization. Logistic regression was used to compute adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for the association of receiving misinformation with sociodemographic characteristics, source of information, COVID-19 misinformation belief, and psychological distress, as well as the associations of COVID-19 misinformation belief with COVID-19 knowledge and the number of COVID-19 preventive behaviors among those who received the misinformation. All data were weighted according to the Korea census data in 2018. Results Overall, 67.78% (n=711) of respondents reported exposure to at least one COVID-19 misinformation item. Misinformation exposure was associated with younger age, higher education levels, and lower income. Sources of information associated with misinformation exposure were social networking services (aOR 1.67, 95% CI 1.20-2.32) and instant messaging (aOR 1.79, 1.27-2.51). Misinformation exposure was also associated with psychological distress including anxiety (aOR 1.80, 1.24-2.61), depressive (aOR 1.47, 1.09-2.00), and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (aOR 1.97, 1.42-2.73), as well as misinformation belief (aOR 7.33, 5.17-10.38). Misinformation belief was associated with poorer COVID-19 knowledge (high: aOR 0.62, 0.45-0.84) and fewer preventive behaviors (≥7 behaviors: aOR 0.54, 0.39-0.74). Conclusions COVID-19 misinformation exposure was associated with misinformation belief, while misinformation belief was associated with fewer preventive behaviors. Given the potential of misinformation to undermine global efforts in COVID-19 disease control, up-to-date public health strategies are required to counter the proliferation of misinformation.
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Saling, Lauren L., Devi Mallal, Falk Scholer, Russell Skelton, and Damiano Spina. "No one is immune to misinformation: An investigation of misinformation sharing by subscribers to a fact-checking newsletter." PLOS ONE 16, no. 8 (August 10, 2021): e0255702. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255702.
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Like other disease outbreaks, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the rapid generation and dissemination of misinformation and fake news. We investigated whether subscribers to a fact checking newsletter (n = 1397) were willing to share possible misinformation, and whether predictors of possible misinformation sharing are the same as for general samples. We also investigated predictors of willingness to have a COVID-19 vaccine and found that although vaccine acceptance was high on average, it decreased as a function of lower belief in science and higher conspiracy mentality. We found that 24% of participants had shared possible misinformation and that this was predicted by a lower belief in science. Like general samples, our participants were typically motivated to share possible misinformation due to interest in the information, or to seek a second opinion about claim veracity. However, even if information is shared in good faith and not for the purpose of deceiving or misleading others, the spread of misinformation is nevertheless highly problematic. Exposure to misinformation engenders faulty beliefs in others and undermines efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19 by reducing adherence to social distancing measures and increasing vaccine hesitancy.
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Wang, Yuan. "Debunking Misinformation About Genetically Modified Food Safety on Social Media: Can Heuristic Cues Mitigate Biased Assimilation?" Science Communication 43, no. 4 (June 18, 2021): 460–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/10755470211022024.
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Focusing on debunking misinformation about genetically modified (GM) food safety in a social media context, this study examines whether source cues and social endorsement cues interact with individuals’ preexisting beliefs about GM food safety in influencing misinformation correction effectiveness. Using an experimental design, this study finds that providing corrective messages can effectively counteract the influence of misinformation, especially when the message is from an expert source and receives high social endorsements. Participants evaluate misinformation and corrective messages in a biased way that confirms their preexisting beliefs about GM food safety. However, their initial misperceptions can be reduced when receiving corrective messages.
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Kim, Seoyong, and Sunhee Kim. "The Crisis of Public Health and Infodemic: Analyzing Belief Structure of Fake News about COVID-19 Pandemic." Sustainability 12, no. 23 (November 26, 2020): 9904. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12239904.
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False information about COVID-19 is being produced and disseminated on a large scale, impeding efforts to rapidly impose quarantines. Thus, in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic itself, an infodemic related with it is leading to social crises. This study therefore investigates who believes the misinformation that is being produced in the context of COVID-19. We choose two main factors—risk perception factor, so called psychometric paradigm, and communication factor—as independent variables that can affect belief in misinformation related to COVID-19. The results show that, among psychometric variables, perceived risk and stigma positively impact belief in fake news, whereas perceived benefit and trust have negative effects. Among communication factors, source credibility and the quantity of information reduce belief in fake news, whereas the credibility of information sources increases these beliefs. Stigma has the greatest explanatory power among the variables, followed by health status, heuristic information processing, trust, and subjective social class.
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Bok, Stephen, Daniel E. Martin, Erik Acosta, Maria Lee, and James Shum. "Validation of the COVID-19 Transmission Misinformation Scale and Conditional Indirect Negative Effects on Wearing a Mask in Public." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18, no. 21 (October 28, 2021): 11319. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111319.
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The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic devastated the world economy. Global infections and deaths altered the behaviors of generations. The Internet acted as an incredible vehicle for communication but was also a source of unfounded rumors. Unfortunately, this freedom of information sharing and fear of COVID-19 fostered unfounded claims about transmission (e.g., 5G networks spread the disease). With negligible enforcement to stop the spread of rumors and government officials spouting unfounded claims, falsities became ubiquitous. Organizations, public health officials, researchers, and businesses spent limited resources addressing rumors instead of implementing policies to overcome challenges (e.g., speaking to defiant mask wearers versus safe reopening actions). The researchers defined COVID-19 transmission misinformation as false beliefs about the spread and prevention of contracting the disease. Design and validation of the 12-item COVID-19 Transmission Misinformation Scale (CTMS) provides a measure to identify transmission misinformation believers. Indirect COVID-19 transmission misinformation beliefs with a fear of COVID-19 decreased wearing a mask in public intentions. Callousness exacerbated COVID-19 transmission misinformation beliefs as a moderator.
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Wu, Yuanyuan, Ozan Kuru, Dam Hee Kim, and Seongcheol Kim. "COVID-19 News Exposure and Vaccinations: A Moderated Mediation of Digital News Literacy Behavior and Vaccine Misperceptions." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20, no. 1 (January 3, 2023): 891. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20010891.
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Being exposed to and believing in misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines is a challenge for vaccine acceptance. Yet, how countervailing factors such as news literacy could complicate “the information exposure—belief in vaccine misinformation—vaccination” path needs to be unpacked to understand the communication of scientific information about COVID-19. This study examines (1) the mediating role of belief in vaccine misinformation between COVID-19 information exposure and vaccination behavior and (2) the moderating role of news literacy behaviors. We examine these relationships by collecting data in two distinct societies: the United States and South Korea. We conducted online surveys in June and September 2021 respectively for each country (N = 1336 [the U.S.]; N = 550 [South Korea]). Our results showed a significant moderated mediation model, in which the association between digital media reliance and COVID-19 vaccination was mediated through vaccine misperceptions, and the relationship between digital media reliance and misinformed belief was further moderated by news literacy behavior. Unexpectedly, we found that individuals with stronger news literacy behavior were more susceptible to misinformation belief. This study contributes to the extant literature on the communication of COVID-19 science through probing into the mediating role of belief in vaccine-related misinformation and the moderating role of news literacy behavior in relation to COVID-19 information exposure and vaccination behaviors. It also reflects the concept of news literacy behavior and discusses how it could be further refined to exert its positive impact in correcting misinformation beliefs.
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Stevens, Hannah, and Nicholas A. Palomares. "Constituents’ Inferences of Local Governments’ Goals and the Relationship Between Political Party and Belief in COVID-19 Misinformation: Cross-sectional Survey of Twitter Followers of State Public Health Departments." JMIR Infodemiology 2, no. 1 (February 10, 2022): e29246. http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/29246.
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Background Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, social media have influenced the circulation of health information. Public health agencies often use Twitter to disseminate and amplify the propagation of such information. Still, exposure to local government–endorsed COVID-19 public health information does not make one immune to believing misinformation. Moreover, not all health information on Twitter is accurate, and some users may believe misinformation and disinformation just as much as those who endorse more accurate information. This situation is complicated, given that elected officials may pursue a political agenda of re-election by downplaying the need for COVID-19 restrictions. The politically polarized nature of information and misinformation on social media in the United States has fueled a COVID-19 infodemic. Because pre-existing political beliefs can both facilitate and hinder persuasion, Twitter users’ belief in COVID-19 misinformation is likely a function of their goal inferences about their local government agencies’ motives for addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective We shed light on the cognitive processes of goal understanding that underlie the relationship between partisanship and belief in health misinformation. We investigate how the valence of Twitter users’ goal inferences of local governments’ COVID-19 efforts predicts their belief in COVID-19 misinformation as a function of their political party affiliation. Methods We conducted a web-based cross-sectional survey of US Twitter users who followed their state’s official Department of Public Health Twitter account (n=258) between August 10 and December 23, 2020. Inferences about local governments’ goals, demographics, and belief in COVID-19 misinformation were measured. State political affiliation was controlled. Results Participants from all 50 states were included in the sample. An interaction emerged between political party affiliation and goal inference valence for belief in COVID-19 misinformation (∆R2=0.04; F8,249=4.78; P<.001); positive goal inference valence predicted increased belief in COVID-19 misinformation among Republicans (β=.47; t249=2.59; P=.01) but not among Democrats (β=.07; t249=0.84; P=.40). Conclusions Our results reveal that favorable inferences about local governments’ COVID-19 efforts can accelerate belief in misinformation among Republican-identifying constituents. In other words, accurate COVID-19 transmission knowledge is a function of constituents' sentiment toward politicians rather than science, which has significant implications on public health efforts for minimizing the spread of the disease, as convincing misinformed constituents to practice safety measures might be a political issue just as much as it is a health one. Our work suggests that goal understanding processes matter for misinformation about COVID-19 among Republicans. Those responsible for future COVID-19 public health messaging aimed at increasing belief in valid information about COVID-19 should recognize the need to test persuasive appeals that address partisans’ pre-existing political views in order to prevent individuals’ goal inferences from interfering with public health messaging.
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Goreis, Andreas, and Oswald D. Kothgassner. "Social Media as Vehicle for Conspiracy Beliefs on COVID-19." Digital Psychology 1, no. 2 (October 27, 2020): 36–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.24989/dp.v1i2.1866.
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Highlights:
Conspiracy beliefs are spread via social media platforms and may have a negative impact on preventive health measures
Preventive measures against fear and misinformation need to consider the differential effects of different forms of conspiracy theories on behavior
Fostering awareness in society about COVID-19 misinformation in social media is crucial.
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Johar, Gita Venkataramani. "Untangling the web of misinformation and false beliefs." Journal of Consumer Psychology 32, no. 2 (April 2022): 374–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jcpy.1288.
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Enders, Adam M., and Joseph E. Uscinski. "Are misinformation, antiscientific claims, and conspiracy theories for political extremists?" Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 24, no. 4 (May 31, 2021): 583–605. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1368430220960805.
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Extremist political groups, especially “extreme” Republicans and conservatives, are increasingly charged with believing misinformation, antiscientific claims, and conspiracy theories to a greater extent than moderates and those on the political left by both a burgeoning scholarly literature and popular press accounts. However, previous investigations of the relationship between political orientations and alternative beliefs have been limited in their operationalization of those beliefs and political extremity. We build on existing literature by examining the relationships between partisan and nonpartisan conspiracy beliefs and symbolic and operational forms of political extremity. Using two large, nationally representative samples of Americans, we find that ideological extremity predicts alternative beliefs only when the beliefs in question are partisan in nature and the measure of ideology is identity-based. Moreover, we find that operational ideological extremism is negatively related to nonpartisan conspiracy beliefs. Our findings help reconcile discrepant findings regarding the relationship between political orientations and conspiracy beliefs.
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Moore, Adam, Sujin Hong, and Laura Cram. "Trust in information, political identity and the brain: an interdisciplinary fMRI study." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 376, no. 1822 (February 22, 2021): 20200140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0140.
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Misinformation has triggered government inquiries and threatens the perceived legitimacy of campaign processes and electoral outcomes. A new identity polarization has arisen between Remain and Leave sympathizers in the UK Brexit debate, with associated accusations of misinformation use. Competing psychological accounts of how people come to accept and defend misinformation pit self-reinforcing motivated cognition against lack of systematic reasoning as possible explanations. We harness insights from political science, cognitive neuroscience and psychology to examine the impact of trust and identity on information processing regarding Brexit in a group of Remain identifiers. Behaviourally, participants' affective responses to Brexit-related information are affected by whether the emotional valence of the message is compatible with their beliefs on Brexit (positive/negative) but not by their trust in the source of information. However, belief in the information is significantly affected by both (dis)trust in information source and by belief compatibility with the valence of the information. Neuroimaging results confirm this pattern, identifying areas involved in judgements of the self, others and automatic processing of affectively threatening stimuli, ultimately supporting motivated cognition accounts of misinformation endorsement. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The political brain: neurocognitive and computational mechanisms’.
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Greene, Ciara M., and Gillian Murphy. "Debriefing works: Successful retraction of misinformation following a fake news study." PLOS ONE 18, no. 1 (January 20, 2023): e0280295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280295.
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In recent years there has been an explosion of research on misinformation, often involving experiments where participants are presented with fake news stories and subsequently debriefed. In order to avoid potential harm to participants or society, it is imperative that we establish whether debriefing procedures remove any lasting influence of misinformation. In the current study, we followed up with 1547 participants one week after they had been exposed to fake news stories about COVID-19 and then provided with a detailed debriefing. False memories and beliefs for previously-seen fake stories declined from the original study, suggesting that the debrief was effective. Moreover, the debriefing resulted in reduced false memories and beliefs for novel fake stories, suggesting a broader impact on participants’ willingness to accept misinformation. Small effects of misinformation on planned health behaviours observed in the original study were also eliminated at follow-up. Our findings suggest that when a careful and thorough debriefing procedure is followed, researchers can safely and ethically conduct misinformation research on sensitive topics.
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Leuker, Christina, Lukas Maximilian Eggeling, Nadine Fleischhut, John Gubernath, Ksenija Gumenik, Shahar Hechtlinger, Anastasia Kozyreva, Larissa Samaan, and Ralph Hertwig. "Misinformation in Germany During the Covid-19 Pandemic." European Journal of Health Communication 3, no. 2 (June 10, 2022): 13–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.47368/ejhc.2022.202.
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During the Covid-19 pandemic, people have been exposed to vast amounts of misinformation. This “infodemic” has undermined key behavioural and pharmacological measures to contain the pandemic. In a cross-sectional survey of residents of Germany, we investigated the perceived prevalence of misinformation, the strategies people reported using to discern between true and false information, and individual differences in beliefs in misinformation at three time points from June 2020 to February 2021 (N = 3324). We observed four main results. First, there was an increase in the perceived prevalence of misinformation over time. Second, the most believed false claims included that the virus is no worse than the flu and that the EU has approved dangerous vaccines. Third, belief in misinformation was associated with support for the far-right AfD party; reliance on tabloids, neighbours and social media for information; lower levels of education; and migration background. Fourth, only about half of the respondents reported using strategies such as checking for consistency between different sources to identify misinformation. These results can inform the development of interventions, such as boosting the ability to discern accurate from misleading information, or enriching specific environments (e.g., neighbourhoods with high rates of migration) with accessible and high-quality information.
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Kessler, Sabrina Heike, and Philipp Schmid. "Mis- and Disinformation About Covid-19." European Journal of Health Communication 3, no. 2 (September 22, 2022): I—VI. http://dx.doi.org/10.47368/ejhc.2022.200.
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Misinformation and disinformation pose major challenges to effective health communication around the globe during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this special issue, we present research on mis- and disinformation about Covid-19 in the European context and describe challenges and potential solutions for health communication. More specifically, the special issue features articles that analyse (a) the prevalence of mis- and disinformation beliefs about Covid-19 and their impact on individuals, as well as the drivers of these beliefs and (b) the effectiveness of potential prebunking and debunking interventions to combat mis- and disinformation. The articles demonstrate the relevance of political attitudes and media use as significant predictors of belief in health misinformation and tested a variety of effective interventions– from pausing to think critically to detailed debunking. Together, the collection of articles serves to support the evidence-based efforts of international organisations, governments, social media technology companies, and major academic institutions to address the problem of health mis- and disinformation.
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Kaufman, Robert A., Michael Robert Haupt, and Steven P. Dow. "Who's in the Crowd Matters: Cognitive Factors and Beliefs Predict Misinformation Assessment Accuracy." Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 6, CSCW2 (November 7, 2022): 1–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3555611.
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Misinformation runs rampant on social media and has been tied to adverse health behaviors such as vaccine hesitancy. Crowdsourcing can be a means to detect and impede the spread of misinformation online. However, past studies have not deeply examined the individual characteristics - such as cognitive factors and biases - that predict crowdworker accuracy at identifying misinformation. In our study (n = 265), Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers and university students assessed the truthfulness and sentiment of COVID-19 related tweets as well as answered several surveys on personal characteristics. Results support the viability of crowdsourcing for assessing misinformation and content stance (i.e., sentiment) related to ongoing and politically-charged topics like the COVID-19 pandemic, however, alignment with experts depends on who is in the crowd. Specifically, we find that respondents with high Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) scores, conscientiousness, and trust in medical scientists are more aligned with experts while respondents with high Need for Cognitive Closure (NFCC) and those who lean politically conservative are less aligned with experts. We see differences between recruitment platforms as well, as our data shows university students are on average more aligned with experts than MTurk workers, most likely due to overall differences in participant characteristics on each platform. Results offer transparency into how crowd composition affects misinformation and stance assessment and have implications on future crowd recruitment and filtering practices.
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Chan, Man-pui Sally, Christopher R. Jones, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, and Dolores Albarracín. "Debunking: A Meta-Analysis of the Psychological Efficacy of Messages Countering Misinformation." Psychological Science 28, no. 11 (September 12, 2017): 1531–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797617714579.
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This meta-analysis investigated the factors underlying effective messages to counter attitudes and beliefs based on misinformation. Because misinformation can lead to poor decisions about consequential matters and is persistent and difficult to correct, debunking it is an important scientific and public-policy goal. This meta-analysis ( k = 52, N = 6,878) revealed large effects for presenting misinformation ( ds = 2.41–3.08), debunking ( ds = 1.14–1.33), and the persistence of misinformation in the face of debunking ( ds = 0.75–1.06). Persistence was stronger and the debunking effect was weaker when audiences generated reasons in support of the initial misinformation. A detailed debunking message correlated positively with the debunking effect. Surprisingly, however, a detailed debunking message also correlated positively with the misinformation-persistence effect.
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Marietta, Morgan. "Review of The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread." Forum 17, no. 1 (April 24, 2019): 187–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/for-2019-0011.
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Pickles, Kristen, Erin Cvejic, Brooke Nickel, Tessa Copp, Carissa Bonner, Julie Leask, Julie Ayre, et al. "COVID-19 Misinformation Trends in Australia: Prospective Longitudinal National Survey." Journal of Medical Internet Research 23, no. 1 (January 7, 2021): e23805. http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/23805.
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Background Misinformation about COVID-19 is common and has been spreading rapidly across the globe through social media platforms and other information systems. Understanding what the public knows about COVID-19 and identifying beliefs based on misinformation can help shape effective public health communications to ensure efforts to reduce viral transmission are not undermined. Objective This study aimed to investigate the prevalence and factors associated with COVID-19 misinformation in Australia and their changes over time. Methods This prospective, longitudinal national survey was completed by adults (18 years and above) across April (n=4362), May (n=1882), and June (n=1369) 2020. Results Stronger agreement with misinformation was associated with younger age, male gender, lower education level, and language other than English spoken at home (P<.01 for all). After controlling for these variables, misinformation beliefs were significantly associated (P<.001) with lower levels of digital health literacy, perceived threat of COVID-19, confidence in government, and trust in scientific institutions. Analyses of specific government-identified misinformation revealed 3 clusters: prevention (associated with male gender and younger age), causation (associated with lower education level and greater social disadvantage), and cure (associated with younger age). Lower institutional trust and greater rejection of official government accounts were associated with stronger agreement with COVID-19 misinformation. Conclusions The findings of this study highlight important gaps in communication effectiveness, which must be addressed to ensure effective COVID-19 prevention.
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Vlasceanu, Madalina, Michael J. Morais, and Alin Coman. "The Effect of Prediction Error on Belief Update Across the Political Spectrum." Psychological Science 32, no. 6 (June 2021): 916–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0956797621995208.
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Making predictions is an adaptive feature of the cognitive system, as prediction errors are used to adjust the knowledge they stemmed from. Here, we investigated the effect of prediction errors on belief update in an ideological context. In Study 1, 704 Cloud Research participants first evaluated a set of beliefs and then either made predictions about evidence associated with the beliefs and received feedback or were just presented with the evidence. Finally, they reevaluated the initial beliefs. Study 2, which involved a U.S. Census–matched sample of 1,073 Cloud Research participants, was a replication of Study 1. We found that the size of prediction errors linearly predicts belief update and that making large errors leads to more belief update than does not engaging in prediction. Importantly, the effects held for both Democrats and Republicans across all belief types (Democratic, Republican, neutral). We discuss these findings in the context of the misinformation epidemic.
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Winters, Maike, Ben Oppenheim, Paul Sengeh, Mohammad B. Jalloh, Nance Webber, Samuel Abu Pratt, Bailah Leigh, et al. "Debunking highly prevalent health misinformation using audio dramas delivered by WhatsApp: evidence from a randomised controlled trial in Sierra Leone." BMJ Global Health 6, no. 11 (November 2021): e006954. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006954.
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IntroductionInfectious disease misinformation is widespread and poses challenges to disease control. There is limited evidence on how to effectively counter health misinformation in a community setting, particularly in low-income regions, and unsettled scientific debate about whether misinformation should be directly discussed and debunked, or implicitly countered by providing scientifically correct information.MethodsThe Contagious Misinformation Trial developed and tested interventions designed to counter highly prevalent infectious disease misinformation in Sierra Leone, namely the beliefs that (1) mosquitoes cause typhoid and (2) typhoid co-occurs with malaria. The information intervention for group A (n=246) explicitly discussed misinformation and explained why it was incorrect and then provided the scientifically correct information. The intervention for group B (n=245) only focused on providing correct information, without directly discussing related misinformation. Both interventions were delivered via audio dramas on WhatsApp that incorporated local cultural understandings of typhoid. Participants were randomised 1:1:1 to the intervention groups or the control group (n=245), who received two episodes about breast feeding.ResultsAt baseline 51% believed that typhoid is caused by mosquitoes and 59% believed that typhoid and malaria always co-occur. The endline survey was completed by 91% of participants. Results from the intention-to-treat, per-protocol and as-treated analyses show that both interventions substantially reduced belief in misinformation compared with the control group. Estimates from these analyses, as well as an exploratory dose–response analysis, suggest that direct debunking may be more effective at countering misinformation. Both interventions improved people’s knowledge and self-reported behaviour around typhoid risk reduction, and yielded self-reported increases in an important preventive method, drinking treated water.ConclusionThese results from a field experiment in a community setting show that highly prevalent health misinformation can be countered, and that direct, detailed debunking may be most effective.Trial registration numberNCT04112680.
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White, Kenneth Michael, Michael Binder, Richard Ledet, and C. Richard Hofstetter. "Information, Misinformation, and Political Participation." American Review of Politics 27 (April 1, 2006): 71–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2006.27.0.71-90.
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This research addresses the extent to which political participation is a function of misinformation. A large body of work links information with participation, but relatively few authors have addressed the relationship between misinformation and participation. We use data from a 1997 random-digit-dial survey of 810 adults in San Diego to test the hypothesis that misinformation (confident beliefs in false facts) is associated with political participation even after controlling for other explanations, including information. We find that while both misinformation and information tend to increase participation levels, their specific impacts vary. This research ends a period of speculation by presenting empirical evidence of misinformed participation for the first time in the literature.
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Bae, Soo Young. "The social mediation of political rumors: Examining the dynamics in social media and belief in political rumors." Journalism 21, no. 10 (September 6, 2017): 1522–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1464884917722657.
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Using survey data of social media users in South Korea, this study investigates the dynamics of political rumors in online social networks. Findings of this study reveal the significant connection between the users’ reliance on social media as a source for news and their beliefs in political rumors. Taking a step further, this study underscores the need to understand how users process misinformation they receive through online social networks. Drawing attention to the role of network characteristics in the construction of beliefs around political rumors, this study provides a more nuanced understanding of the conditions under which rumors and misinformation can be regarded as more believable.
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Rabb, Nicholas, Lenore Cowen, Jan P. de Ruiter, and Matthias Scheutz. "Cognitive cascades: How to model (and potentially counter) the spread of fake news." PLOS ONE 17, no. 1 (January 7, 2022): e0261811. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261811.
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Understanding the spread of false or dangerous beliefs—often called misinformation or disinformation—through a population has never seemed so urgent. Network science researchers have often taken a page from epidemiologists, and modeled the spread of false beliefs as similar to how a disease spreads through a social network. However, absent from those disease-inspired models is an internal model of an individual’s set of current beliefs, where cognitive science has increasingly documented how the interaction between mental models and incoming messages seems to be crucially important for their adoption or rejection. Some computational social science modelers analyze agent-based models where individuals do have simulated cognition, but they often lack the strengths of network science, namely in empirically-driven network structures. We introduce a cognitive cascade model that combines a network science belief cascade approach with an internal cognitive model of the individual agents as in opinion diffusion models as a public opinion diffusion (POD) model, adding media institutions as agents which begin opinion cascades. We show that the model, even with a very simplistic belief function to capture cognitive effects cited in disinformation study (dissonance and exposure), adds expressive power over existing cascade models. We conduct an analysis of the cognitive cascade model with our simple cognitive function across various graph topologies and institutional messaging patterns. We argue from our results that population-level aggregate outcomes of the model qualitatively match what has been reported in COVID-related public opinion polls, and that the model dynamics lend insights as to how to address the spread of problematic beliefs. The overall model sets up a framework with which social science misinformation researchers and computational opinion diffusion modelers can join forces to understand, and hopefully learn how to best counter, the spread of disinformation and “alternative facts.”
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Aamodt, Michael G. "Reducing Misconceptions and False Beliefs in Police and Criminal Psychology." Criminal Justice and Behavior 35, no. 10 (October 2008): 1231–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093854808321527.
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Although certainly not alone, the field of police and criminal psychology seems to be an area that is highly susceptible to myths and misinformation. Whether it is the notion that police have higher suicide and divorce rates or that crime rates greatly increase during a full moon, there are many commonly held beliefs that are not supported by scientific evidence. This article discusses research conducted by the author and his students over the past several years to investigate the accuracy of some common beliefs in police and criminal psychology. Four principles are proposed that, if considered, might reduce the level of misinformation in police and criminal psychology. These principles include using primary sources, comparing apples with apples, avoiding the oversimplification of what is being studied, and understanding that in general, human judgment is not a good predictor of behavior.
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Enders, Adam M., and Steven M. Smallpage. "On the measurement of conspiracy beliefs." Research & Politics 5, no. 1 (January 2018): 205316801876359. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2053168018763596.
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Are so-called “birthers” best thought of as true conspiracy theorists, or are they merely partisans expressing a sharp dislike of Barack Obama? Recent work on conspiracy beliefs finds that “birthers” are the product of partisan and ideological motivated reasoning. In this manuscript, we explore how the measurement strategies we employ on public opinion surveys may influence the substantive conclusions we draw about conspiratorial beliefs, rumors, and misinformation. We find that partisan stimuli influence reported beliefs in several different conspiracy theories, and, subsequently, the relationships between individual stated beliefs in those conspiracy theories. The implications of these findings are discussed.
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Pierre, Joseph M. "Mistrust and misinformation: A two-component, socio-epistemic model of belief in conspiracy theories." Journal of Social and Political Psychology 8, no. 2 (October 12, 2020): 617–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i2.1362.
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Although conspiracy theories are endorsed by about half the population and occasionally turn out to be true, they are more typically false beliefs that, by definition, have a paranoid theme. Consequently, psychological research to date has focused on determining whether there are traits that account for belief in conspiracy theories (BCT) within a deficit model. Alternatively, a two-component, socio-epistemic model of BCT is proposed that seeks to account for the ubiquity of conspiracy theories, their variance along a continuum, and the inconsistency of research findings likening them to psychopathology. Within this model, epistemic mistrust is the core component underlying conspiracist ideation that manifests as the rejection of authoritative information, focuses the specificity of conspiracy theory beliefs, and can sometimes be understood as a sociocultural response to breaches of trust, inequities of power, and existing racial prejudices. Once voices of authority are negated due to mistrust, the resulting epistemic vacuum can send individuals “down the rabbit hole” looking for answers where they are vulnerable to the biased processing of information and misinformation within an increasingly “post-truth” world. The two-component, socio-epistemic model of BCT argues for mitigation strategies that address both mistrust and misinformation processing, with interventions for individuals, institutions of authority, and society as a whole.
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Maffioli, Elisa M., and Robert Gonzalez. "Are socio-demographic and economic characteristics good predictors of misinformation during an epidemic?" PLOS Global Public Health 2, no. 3 (March 16, 2022): e0000279. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0000279.
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We combine data on beliefs about the origin of the 2014 Ebola outbreak with two supervised machine learning methods to predict who is more likely to be misinformed. Contrary to popular beliefs, we uncover that, socio-demographic and economic indicators play a minor role in predicting those who are misinformed: misinformed individuals are not any poorer, older, less educated, more economically distressed, more rural, or ethnically different than individuals who are informed. However, they are more likely to report high levels of distrust, especially towards governmental institutions. By distinguishing between types of beliefs, distrust in the central government is the primary predictor of individuals assigning a political origin to the epidemic, while Muslim religion is the most important predictor of whether the individual assigns a supernatural origin. Instead, educational level has a markedly higher importance for ethnic beliefs. Taken together, the results highlight that government trust might play the most important role in reducing misinformation during epidemics.
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Zahra, Tauheed, Farhan Ahmad Faiz, and Farrah Ahmed. "EXPLORING COVID-19 VACCINE ACCEPTANCE AND HESITANCY DETERMINANTS." Pakistan Journal of Social Research 03, no. 01 (March 31, 2021): 80–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.52567/pjsr.v3i01.189.
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The World Health Organization recognizes vaccine related myths and conspiracies as the world's top threat to public health safety, particularly in low middle-income countries. The current study aims to explore the beliefs of the general public towards the vaccine acceptance and the hesitancy. The study explicates the COVID 19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy determinants through an in-depth qualitative approach. A total of 30 male and female millennials from different education backgrounds were interviewed through an interview guide. This study reveals that people have different beliefs related to the vaccine authenticity which plays a vital role in the reluctance towards it. Findings from paper is similar to literature that people from good educational background have similar thoughts towards COVID 19 vaccination. Disregard for the vaccine was caused by various factors, such as misinformation, safety concerns, and personal knowledge. This level of distrust was associated with the social worlds that participants experienced during the pandemic. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is a complex relationship that involves the spread of misinformation. Vaccine programs should provide a focused, localized, and empathetic response to counter misinformation. Keywords: COVID-19, vaccines, myths, hesitancy, vaccines awareness, pandemic, conspiracy, corona virus
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Zimet, Gregory D., Zeev Rosberger, William A. Fisher, Samara Perez, and Nathan W. Stupiansky. "Beliefs, behaviors and HPV vaccine: Correcting the myths and the misinformation." Preventive Medicine 57, no. 5 (November 2013): 414–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2013.05.013.
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Porter, Ethan, Thomas J. Wood, and Babak Bahador. "Can presidential misinformation on climate change be corrected? Evidence from Internet and phone experiments." Research & Politics 6, no. 3 (July 2019): 205316801986478. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2053168019864784.
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Can presidential misinformation affect political knowledge and policy views of the mass public, even when that misinformation is followed by a fact-check? We present results from two experiments, conducted online and over the telephone, in which respondents were presented with Trump misstatements on climate change. While Trump’s misstatements on their own reduced factual accuracy, corrections prompted the average subject to become more accurate. Republicans were not as affected by a correction as their Democratic counterparts, but their factual beliefs about climate change were never more affected by Trump than by the facts. In neither experiment did corrections affect policy preferences. Debunking treatments can improve factual accuracy even among co-partisans subjected to presidential misinformation. Yet an increase in climate-related factual accuracy does not sway climate-related attitudes. Fact-checks can limit the effects of presidential misinformation, but have no impact on the president’s capacity to shape policy preferences.
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Savoia, Elena, Nigel Walsh Harriman, Rachael Piltch-Loeb, Marco Bonetti, Veronica Toffolutti, and Marcia A. Testa. "Exploring the Association between Misinformation Endorsement, Opinions on the Government Response, Risk Perception, and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the US, Canada, and Italy." Vaccines 10, no. 5 (April 23, 2022): 671. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10050671.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the adverse consequences created by an infodemic, specifically bringing attention to compliance with public health guidance and vaccine uptake. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is a complex construct that is related to health beliefs, misinformation exposure, and perceptions of governmental institutions. This study draws on theoretical models and current data on the COVID-19 infodemic to explore the association between the perceived risk of COVID-19, level of misinformation endorsement, and opinions about the government response on vaccine uptake. We surveyed a sample of 2697 respondents from the US, Canada, and Italy using a mobile platform between 21–28 May 2021. Using multivariate regression, we found that country of residence, risk perception of contracting and spreading COVID-19, perception of government response and transparency, and misinformation endorsement were associated with the odds of vaccine hesitancy. Higher perceived risk was associated with lower odds of hesitancy, while lower perceptions of government response and higher misinformation endorsement were associated with higher hesitancy.
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Ferreira Caceres, Maria Mercedes, Juan Pablo Sosa, Jannel A. Lawrence, Cristina Sestacovschi, Atiyah Tidd-Johnson, Muhammad Haseeb UI Rasool, Vinay Kumar Gadamidi, et al. "The impact of misinformation on the COVID-19 pandemic." AIMS Public Health 9, no. 2 (2022): 262–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.3934/publichealth.2022018.
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<abstract> <p>Since the inception of the current pandemic, COVID-19 related misinformation has played a role in defaulting control of the situation. It has become evident that the internet, social media, and other communication outlets with readily available data have contributed to the dissemination and availability of misleading information. It has perpetuated beliefs that led to vaccine avoidance, mask refusal, and utilization of medications with insignificant scientific data, ultimately contributing to increased morbidity. Undoubtedly, misinformation has become a challenge and a burden to individual health, public health, and governments globally. Our review article aims at providing an overview and summary regarding the role of media, other information outlets, and their impact on the pandemic. The goal of this article is to increase awareness of the negative impact of misinformation on the pandemic. In addition, we discuss a few recommendations that could aid in decreasing this burden, as preventing the conception and dissemination of misinformation is essential.</p> </abstract>
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Jiang, Shan, Miriam Metzger, Andrew Flanagin, and Christo Wilson. "Modeling and Measuring Expressed (Dis)belief in (Mis)information." Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media 14 (May 26, 2020): 315–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v14i1.7302.
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The proliferation of online misinformation has been raising increasing societal concerns about its potential consequences, e.g., polarizing the public and eroding trust in institutions. These consequences are framed under the public's susceptibility to such misinformation — a narrative that needs further investigation and quantification. To this end, our paper proposes an observational approach to model and measure expressed (dis)beliefs in (mis)information by leveraging social media comments as a proxy. We collect a sample of tweets in response to (mis)information and annotate them with (dis)belief labels, explore the dataset using lexicon-based methods, and finally build classifiers based on the state-of-the-art neural transfer-learning models (BERT, XLNet, and RoBERTa). Under a domain-specific thresholding strategy for unbiasedness, the best-performing classifier archives macro-F1 scores around 0.86 for disbelief and 0.80 for belief. Applying the classifier, we conduct a large-scale measurement study and show that, for true/mixed/false claims on social media, 12%/14%/15% of comments express disbelief and 26%/21%/20% of comments express belief. In addition, our results suggest an extremely slight time effect of falsehood awareness, a positive effect of fact-checks to false claims, and differences in (dis)belief across social media platforms.
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Silver, Nathan A., Elexis C. Kierstead, Jodie Briggs, and Barbara Schillo. "Charming e-cigarette users with distorted science: a survey examining social media platform use, nicotine-related misinformation and attitudes towards the tobacco industry." BMJ Open 12, no. 6 (June 2022): e057027. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057027.
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ObjectiveTo examine the role of social media in promoting recall and belief of distorted science about nicotine and COVID-19 and whether recall and belief predict tobacco industry beliefs.DesignYoung adults aged 18–34 years (N=1225) were surveyed cross-sectionally via online Qualtrics panel. The survey assessed recall and belief in three claims about nicotine and COVID-19 and three about nicotine in general followed by assessments of industry beliefs and use of social media. Ordinal logistic regression with robust standard errors controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, education, current e-cigarette use and age was used to examine relationships between variables.ResultsTwitter use was associated with higher odds of recall (OR=1.21, 95% CI=1.01 to 1.44) and belief (OR=1.26, 95% CI=1.04 to 1.52) in COVID-19-specific distorted science. YouTube use was associated with higher odds of believing COVID-19-specific distorted science (OR=1.32, 95% CI=1.09 to 1.60). Reddit use was associated with lower odds of believing COVID-19-specific distorted science (OR=0.72, 95% CI=0.59 to 0.88). Recall (OR=1.26, 95% CI=1.07 to 1.47) and belief (OR=1.28, 95% CI=1.09 to 1.50) in distorted science about nicotine in general as well as belief in distorted science specific to COVID-19 (OR=1.61, 95% CI=1.34 to 1.95) were associated with more positive beliefs about the tobacco industry. Belief in distorted science about nicotine in general was also associated with more negative beliefs about the tobacco industry (OR=1.18, 95% CI=1.02 to 1.35).ConclusionsUse of social media platforms may help to both spread and dispel distorted science about nicotine. Addressing distorted science about nicotine is important, as it appears to be associated with more favourable views of the tobacco industry which may erode public support for effective regulation.
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Sultana, Sharifa, and Susan R. Fussell. "Dissemination, Situated Fact-checking, and Social Effects of Misinformation among Rural Bangladeshi Villagers During the COVID-19 Pandemic." Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 5, CSCW2 (October 13, 2021): 1–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3479580.
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This paper investigates the dissemination, situated fact-checking processes, and social effects of COVID-19 related online and offline misinformation in rural Bangladeshi life. A six-month-long ethnographic study in three villages found villagers perceived a lack of knowledge and experience among local medical professionals and often fell for flashy promotions of unreliable and unconfirmed cures. Villagers built on their local beliefs and myths, religious faiths, and social justice sensibilities while fact-checking suspicious information. They often reported being misled by misinformation that caters to these values, and they further spread this information through conversations with friends and family. Based on our findings, we argue that CSCW and HCI researchers should study misinformation and situated fact-checking together as a communal practice to design appropriate wellbeing technologies and social media for given communities.
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Lewandowsky, Stephan, Werner G. K. Stritzke, Klaus Oberauer, and Michael Morales. "Memory for Fact, Fiction, and Misinformation." Psychological Science 16, no. 3 (March 2005): 190–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.00802.x.
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Media coverage of the 2003 Iraq War frequently contained corrections and retractions of earlier information. For example, claims that Iraqi forces executed coalition prisoners of war after they surrendered were retracted the day after the claims were made. Similarly, tentative initial reports about the discovery of weapons of mass destruction were all later disconfirmed. We investigated the effects of these retractions and disconfirmations on people's memory for and beliefs about war-related events in two coalition countries (Australia and the United States) and one country that opposed the war (Germany). Participants were queried about (a) true events, (b) events initially presented as fact but subsequently retracted, and (c) fictional events. Participants in the United States did not show sensitivity to the correction of misinformation, whereas participants in Australia and Germany discounted corrected misinformation. Our results are consistent with previous findings in that the differences between samples reflect greater suspicion about the motives underlying the war among people in Australia and Germany than among people in the United States.
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Egorova, Marina S., Oksana V. Parshikova, Yulia D. Chertkova, Vladimir M. Staroverov, and Olga V. Mitina. "COVID-19: Belief in Conspiracy Theories and the Need for Quarantine." Psychology in Russia: State of the Art 13, no. 4 (2020): 3–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.11621/pir.2020.0401.
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Background. Situations that are characterized by unexpected scenarios, unpredictable developments, and risks to life and health facilitate beliefs in conspiracy theories. These beliefs — together with reliable information, intentional and unintentional misinformation and rumors — determine attitudes toward the situations and ways to overcome them. Objective. To examine the effect of belief in conspiracy theories on the recognition of the need for quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic; the effect of personality traits on belief in conspiracy theories and on the recognition of the need for quarantine; the relationship of belief in conspiracy theories with assessment of the dangers of COVID-19 and with feelings of hopelessness. Design. The study was conducted over a period when the number of coronavirus cases was growing, during the first three weeks of the lockdown in Russia. The sample included 667 undergraduate and graduate students aged 16–31 (M = 20.44, SD = 2.38); 74.2% of the participants were women. Respondents filled out two online questionnaires. The first related to perceptions about the COVID-19 pandemic; the second was a brief HEXACO inventory. Results. Belief in Conspiracy Theories accounts for 13% of variance in Recognition of the Need for Quarantine; together with Dangers of COVID-19 and Hopelessness, conspiracy beliefs account for more than a quarter of the variance. Personality traits defined in the context of the 6-factor personality model have a small effect on conspiracy beliefs about the coronavirus and on perception of the need for quarantine. Conclusion. Belief in conspiracy theories is associated not only with irrational views of reality, but also with the adoption of ineffective behaviors.
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Doka, Kenneth J. "Adolescent Attitudes and Beliefs toward Aging and the Elderly." International Journal of Aging and Human Development 22, no. 3 (April 1986): 173–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/mkyy-7vgg-j1el-mkq4.
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This article reports the results of an oral history project that used adolescents to interview elderly informants. The adolescents had considerable misinformation about aging and anxiety about the later stages of the life cycle. They also had negative stereotypes toward the elderly. The adolescents who participated in the project expressed enthusiasm for the project and admiration for the elderly they interviewed. However, participation in the project did not significantly impact upon beliefs and attitudes toward aging or the elderly. Factors that might account for these results, and implications of these results, are discussed.
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Hameleers, Michael, and Toni G. L. A. van der Meer. "Misinformation and Polarization in a High-Choice Media Environment: How Effective Are Political Fact-Checkers?" Communication Research 47, no. 2 (January 13, 2019): 227–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0093650218819671.
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One of the most fundamental changes in today’s political information environment is an increasing lack of communicative truthfulness. To explore this worrisome phenomenon, this study aims to investigate the effects of political misinformation by integrating three theoretical approaches: (1) misinformation, (2) polarization, and (3) selective exposure. In this article, we examine the role of fact-checkers in discrediting polarized misinformation in a fragmented media environment. We rely on two experiments ( N = 1,117) in which we vary exposure to attitudinal-congruent or incongruent political news and a follow-up fact-check article debunking the information. Participants were either forced to see or free to select a fact-checker. Results show that fact-checkers can be successful as they (1) lower agreement with attitudinally congruent political misinformation and (2) can overcome political polarization. Moreover, dependent on the issue, fact-checkers are most likely to be selected when they confirm prior attitudes and avoided when they are incongruent, indicating a confirmation bias for selecting corrective information. The freedom to select or avoid fact-checkers does not have an impact on political beliefs.
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Pluviano, Sara, Caroline Watt, Giovanni Ragazzini, and Sergio Della Sala. "Parents’ beliefs in misinformation about vaccines are strengthened by pro-vaccine campaigns." Cognitive Processing 20, no. 3 (April 8, 2019): 325–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10339-019-00919-w.
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Sallam, Malik, Deema Dababseh, Huda Eid, Kholoud Al-Mahzoum, Ayat Al-Haidar, Duaa Taim, Alaa Yaseen, Nidaa A. Ababneh, Faris G. Bakri, and Azmi Mahafzah. "High Rates of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Its Association with Conspiracy Beliefs: A Study in Jordan and Kuwait among Other Arab Countries." Vaccines 9, no. 1 (January 12, 2021): 42. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9010042.
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Vaccination could be an effective strategy for slowing the spread of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Vaccine hesitancy could pose a serious problem for COVID-19 prevention, due to the spread of misinformation surrounding the ongoing pandemic. The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes towards the prospective COVID-19 vaccines among the general public in Jordan, Kuwait and other Arab countries. We also aimed to assess the association between COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and conspiracy beliefs. This study used an online survey distributed in December 2020, with items assessing conspiracies regarding COVID-19’s origin and vaccination. Attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines were assessed using the Vaccine Conspiracy Belief Scale (VCBS), with higher scores indicating a greater belief in vaccine conspiracy. A total of 3414 respondents completed the survey, the majority being residents of Jordan (n = 2173, 63.6%), Kuwait (n = 771, 22.6%) and Saudi Arabia (n = 154, 4.5%). The acceptance rates for COVID-19 and influenza vaccines were 29.4% and 30.9%, respectively. Males, respondents with higher educational levels and those with histories of chronic disease had higher rates of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Beliefs that COVID-19 vaccines are intended to inject microchips into recipients and that the vaccines are related to infertility were found in 27.7% and 23.4% of respondents, respectively. Higher VCBS scores were found among females, respondents with lower educational levels and respondents relying on social media platforms as the main source of information. The high rates of vaccine hesitancy in Jordan and Kuwait, among other Arab countries, are alarming. They could hinder the proper control of COVID-19 in the region. The harmful effect of COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy beliefs was manifested in vaccine hesitancy. This may represent a massive obstacle to the successful control of the pandemic. A reliance on social media as the main source of information about COVID-19 vaccines was associated with vaccine hesitancy. This should alert governments, policy makers and the general public to the importance of vigilant fact checking.
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Rutjens, Bastiaan T., Sander van der Linden, Romy van der Lee, and Natalia Zarzeczna. "A group processes approach to antiscience beliefs and endorsement of “alternative facts”." Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 24, no. 4 (May 31, 2021): 513–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13684302211009708.
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The global spread of antiscience beliefs, misinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories is posing a threat to the well-being of individuals and societies worldwide. Accordingly, research on why people increasingly doubt science and endorse “alternative facts” is flourishing. Much of this work has focused on identifying cognitive biases and individual differences. Importantly, however, the reasons that lead people to question mainstream scientific findings and share misinformation are also inherently tied to social processes that emerge out of divisive commitments to group identities and worldviews. In this special issue, we focus on the important and thus far neglected role of group processes in motivating science skepticism. The articles that feature in this special issue cover three core areas: the group-based roots of antiscience attitudes; the intergroup dynamics between science and conspiratorial thinking; and finally, insights about science denial related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Across all articles, we highlight the role of worldviews, identities, norms, religion, and other inter- and intragroup processes that shape antiscientific attitudes. We hope that this collection will inspire future research endeavors that take a group processes approach to the social psychological study of science skepticism.
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Gentzkow, Matthew A., and Jesse M. Shapiro. "Media, Education and Anti-Americanism in the Muslim World." Journal of Economic Perspectives 18, no. 3 (August 1, 2004): 117–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/0895330042162313.
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Recent surveys in the United States and the Muslim world show widespread misinformation about the events of September 11, 2001. Using data from 9 predominantly Muslim countries, we study how such beliefs depend on exposure to news media and levels of education. Standard economic theory would predict that increased access to information should cause beliefs to converge. More recent models of biased belief formation suggest that this result might hinge critically on who is providing the information. Consistent with the latter, we find that overall intensity of media use and level of education have at best a weak correlation with beliefs, while particular information sources have strong and divergent effects. Compared to those with little media exposure or schooling, individuals watching Arab news channels or educated in schools with little Western influence are less likely to agree that the September 11 attacks were carried out by Arab terrorists. Those exposed to media or education from Western sources are more likely to agree. Belief that the attacks were morally justified and general attitudes toward the US are also strongly correlated with source of information. These findings survive controls for demographic characteristics and are robust to identifying media effects using cross-country variation in language.
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Pickles, Kristen, Tessa Copp, Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, Rachael H. Dodd, Carissa Bonner, Brooke Nickel, Maryke S. Steffens, et al. "COVID-19 Vaccine Misperceptions in a Community Sample of Adults Aged 18–49 Years in Australia." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 11 (June 4, 2022): 6883. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116883.
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Central to a successful population vaccination program is high uptake of vaccines. However, COVID-19 vaccine uptake may be impeded by beliefs based on misinformation. We sought to understand the prevalence and nature of misbeliefs about COVID-19 vaccines, and identify associated factors, shortly after commencement of Australia’s national vaccine rollout. A cross-sectional survey was administered to unvaccinated young adults (n = 2050) in Australia aged 18–49 years (mean age 33 years), 13 July–21 August 2021. This sample was previously under-represented in COVID-19 research but shown to have less willingness to vaccinate. Two thirds of participants agreed with at least one misbelief item. Misperceptions about COVID-19 vaccines were found to be significantly associated with lower health literacy, less knowledge about vaccines, lower perceived personal risk of COVID-19, greater endorsement of conspiracy beliefs, and lower confidence and trust in government and scientific institutions. Misbeliefs were more common in participants with less educational attainment, in younger age groups, and in males, as per previous research. Understanding determinants and barriers to vaccination uptake, such as knowledge and beliefs based on misinformation, can help to shape effective public health communication and inform debunking efforts at this critical time and in the future.
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Bam, Nokwanda E. "Strategies to address conspiracy beliefs and misinformation on COVID-19 in South Africa: A narrative literature review." Health SA Gesondheid 27 (November 8, 2022). http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v27i0.1851.
Full textAbstract:
Conspiracy theories and misinformation have been explored extensively however, strategies to minimise their impact in the context of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines are limited. This study aimed to explore strategies that can be used to reduce the negative effects of conspiracies and misinformation about SARS-CoV-2. This review was carried out based on accessed literature on beliefs in misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic. A comprehensive search of databases, such as Google Scholar, EBSCOhost and African Journals between 2019 and 2022 yielded qualitative and quantitative studies. Two themes emerged, namely underlying motives for conspiracy theories and belief in misinformation about the pandemic and ways to overcome them. The latter included: (1) strengthening critical scanning of information, (2) critical review to address misinformation and (3) establishing approaches for managing conspiracy theories. A proposal is made to address conspiracy beliefs about COVID-19 infection.Contribution: This is believed to be the first review that describes strategies to mitigate belief in conspiracies and misinformation to promote vaccination.