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Misinformation, believability, and vaccine acceptance over 40 countries: Takeaways from the initial phase of the COVID-19 infodemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been damaging to the lives of people all around the world. Accompanied by the pandemic is an infodemic, an abundant and uncontrolled spread of potentially harmful misinformation. The infodemic may severely change the pandemic’s course by interfering with public health inter...

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Autores principales: Singh, Karandeep, Lima, Gabriel, Cha, Meeyoung, Cha, Chiyoung, Kulshrestha, Juhi, Ahn, Yong-Yeol, Varol, Onur
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8827463/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35139117
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263381
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author Singh, Karandeep
Lima, Gabriel
Cha, Meeyoung
Cha, Chiyoung
Kulshrestha, Juhi
Ahn, Yong-Yeol
Varol, Onur
author_facet Singh, Karandeep
Lima, Gabriel
Cha, Meeyoung
Cha, Chiyoung
Kulshrestha, Juhi
Ahn, Yong-Yeol
Varol, Onur
author_sort Singh, Karandeep
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic has been damaging to the lives of people all around the world. Accompanied by the pandemic is an infodemic, an abundant and uncontrolled spread of potentially harmful misinformation. The infodemic may severely change the pandemic’s course by interfering with public health interventions such as wearing masks, social distancing, and vaccination. In particular, the impact of the infodemic on vaccination is critical because it holds the key to reverting to pre-pandemic normalcy. This paper presents findings from a global survey on the extent of worldwide exposure to the COVID-19 infodemic, assesses different populations’ susceptibility to false claims, and analyzes its association with vaccine acceptance. Based on responses gathered from over 18,400 individuals from 40 countries, we find a strong association between perceived believability of COVID-19 misinformation and vaccination hesitancy. Our study shows that only half of the online users exposed to rumors might have seen corresponding fact-checked information. Moreover, depending on the country, between 6% and 37% of individuals considered these rumors believable. A key finding of this research is that poorer regions were more susceptible to encountering and believing COVID-19 misinformation; countries with lower gross domestic product (GDP) per capita showed a substantially higher prevalence of misinformation. We discuss implications of our findings to public campaigns that proactively spread accurate information to countries that are more susceptible to the infodemic. We also defend that fact-checking platforms should prioritize claims that not only have wide exposure but are also perceived to be believable. Our findings give insights into how to successfully handle risk communication during the initial phase of a future pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-88274632022-02-10 Misinformation, believability, and vaccine acceptance over 40 countries: Takeaways from the initial phase of the COVID-19 infodemic Singh, Karandeep Lima, Gabriel Cha, Meeyoung Cha, Chiyoung Kulshrestha, Juhi Ahn, Yong-Yeol Varol, Onur PLoS One Research Article The COVID-19 pandemic has been damaging to the lives of people all around the world. Accompanied by the pandemic is an infodemic, an abundant and uncontrolled spread of potentially harmful misinformation. The infodemic may severely change the pandemic’s course by interfering with public health interventions such as wearing masks, social distancing, and vaccination. In particular, the impact of the infodemic on vaccination is critical because it holds the key to reverting to pre-pandemic normalcy. This paper presents findings from a global survey on the extent of worldwide exposure to the COVID-19 infodemic, assesses different populations’ susceptibility to false claims, and analyzes its association with vaccine acceptance. Based on responses gathered from over 18,400 individuals from 40 countries, we find a strong association between perceived believability of COVID-19 misinformation and vaccination hesitancy. Our study shows that only half of the online users exposed to rumors might have seen corresponding fact-checked information. Moreover, depending on the country, between 6% and 37% of individuals considered these rumors believable. A key finding of this research is that poorer regions were more susceptible to encountering and believing COVID-19 misinformation; countries with lower gross domestic product (GDP) per capita showed a substantially higher prevalence of misinformation. We discuss implications of our findings to public campaigns that proactively spread accurate information to countries that are more susceptible to the infodemic. We also defend that fact-checking platforms should prioritize claims that not only have wide exposure but are also perceived to be believable. Our findings give insights into how to successfully handle risk communication during the initial phase of a future pandemic. Public Library of Science 2022-02-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8827463/ /pubmed/35139117 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263381 Text en © 2022 Singh et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Singh, Karandeep
Lima, Gabriel
Cha, Meeyoung
Cha, Chiyoung
Kulshrestha, Juhi
Ahn, Yong-Yeol
Varol, Onur
Misinformation, believability, and vaccine acceptance over 40 countries: Takeaways from the initial phase of the COVID-19 infodemic
title Misinformation, believability, and vaccine acceptance over 40 countries: Takeaways from the initial phase of the COVID-19 infodemic
title_full Misinformation, believability, and vaccine acceptance over 40 countries: Takeaways from the initial phase of the COVID-19 infodemic
title_fullStr Misinformation, believability, and vaccine acceptance over 40 countries: Takeaways from the initial phase of the COVID-19 infodemic
title_full_unstemmed Misinformation, believability, and vaccine acceptance over 40 countries: Takeaways from the initial phase of the COVID-19 infodemic
title_short Misinformation, believability, and vaccine acceptance over 40 countries: Takeaways from the initial phase of the COVID-19 infodemic
title_sort misinformation, believability, and vaccine acceptance over 40 countries: takeaways from the initial phase of the covid-19 infodemic
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8827463/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35139117
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263381
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