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Correcting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in 10 countries

What can be done to reduce misperceptions about COVID-19 vaccines? We present results from experiments conducted simultaneously on YouGov samples in 10 countries (N = 10 600), which reveal that factual corrections consistently reduce false beliefs about vaccines. With results from these 10 countries...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Porter, Ethan, Velez, Yamil, Wood, Thomas J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10014243/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36938534
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221097
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author Porter, Ethan
Velez, Yamil
Wood, Thomas J.
author_facet Porter, Ethan
Velez, Yamil
Wood, Thomas J.
author_sort Porter, Ethan
collection PubMed
description What can be done to reduce misperceptions about COVID-19 vaccines? We present results from experiments conducted simultaneously on YouGov samples in 10 countries (N = 10 600), which reveal that factual corrections consistently reduce false beliefs about vaccines. With results from these 10 countries, we find that exposure to corrections increases belief accuracy by 0.16 on a 4-point scale, while exposure to misinformation decreases belief accuracy by 0.09 on the same scale. We are unable to find evidence that either misinformation or factual corrections affect intent to vaccinate or vaccine attitudes. Our findings on effect duration are less conclusive; when we recontacted participants two weeks later, we observed 39% of the initial accuracy increase, yet this result narrowly misses conventional thresholds of statistical significance (p = 0.06). Taken together, our results illustrate both the possibilities and limitations of factual corrections. Evidence from 10 highly diverse populations shows that exposure to factual information reduces belief in falsehoods about vaccines, but has minimal influence on subsequent behaviours and attitudes.
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spelling pubmed-100142432023-03-16 Correcting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in 10 countries Porter, Ethan Velez, Yamil Wood, Thomas J. R Soc Open Sci Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience What can be done to reduce misperceptions about COVID-19 vaccines? We present results from experiments conducted simultaneously on YouGov samples in 10 countries (N = 10 600), which reveal that factual corrections consistently reduce false beliefs about vaccines. With results from these 10 countries, we find that exposure to corrections increases belief accuracy by 0.16 on a 4-point scale, while exposure to misinformation decreases belief accuracy by 0.09 on the same scale. We are unable to find evidence that either misinformation or factual corrections affect intent to vaccinate or vaccine attitudes. Our findings on effect duration are less conclusive; when we recontacted participants two weeks later, we observed 39% of the initial accuracy increase, yet this result narrowly misses conventional thresholds of statistical significance (p = 0.06). Taken together, our results illustrate both the possibilities and limitations of factual corrections. Evidence from 10 highly diverse populations shows that exposure to factual information reduces belief in falsehoods about vaccines, but has minimal influence on subsequent behaviours and attitudes. The Royal Society 2023-03-15 /pmc/articles/PMC10014243/ /pubmed/36938534 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221097 Text en © 2023 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
Porter, Ethan
Velez, Yamil
Wood, Thomas J.
Correcting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in 10 countries
title Correcting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in 10 countries
title_full Correcting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in 10 countries
title_fullStr Correcting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in 10 countries
title_full_unstemmed Correcting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in 10 countries
title_short Correcting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in 10 countries
title_sort correcting covid-19 vaccine misinformation in 10 countries
topic Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10014243/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36938534
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.221097
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