The ephemeral effects of fact-checks on COVID-19 misperceptions in the United States, Great Britain and Canada

Carey, John; Guess, Andrew M.; Loewen, Peter John; Merkley, Eric; Nyhan, Brendan; Phillips, Joseph; Reifler, Jason

doi:10.1038/s41562-021-01278-3

Cited by 64 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 36 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, Emotional Epidemiology even works for rare diseases, such as meningitis. In fact, diseases with high case-fatality rates and epidemic potential recall ghosts of the past and trigger collective defence mechanisms, whose dynamics are consistent with the transmissibility of the same infectious agents [ 19 , 20 ]. In these cases too, the high level of outrage leads to a demand for mass vaccination by the public, as soon as there is even a single episode, only to see the same public quickly lose their perception of the risk soon afterwards.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Knowledge and Behaviours towards Immunisation Programmes: Vaccine Hesitancy during the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

Dettori

Arghittu

Castiglia

2022

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Assessing knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards vaccination is a key strategy when implementing national and international immunisation programmes aimed at improving compliance among the population and thereby increasing vaccination coverage. While vaccination’s role as a powerful life-saving weapon in the fight against infectious diseases has been further highlighted following the introduction of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine, there is still a discrepancy between the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of vaccines and the perception of the risk attributed to them. Known as “Vaccine Hesitancy” (VH), this phenomenon is the delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines, despite the availability of services. VH can be found in at least 15% of the worldwide population, and even professional groups tasked with promoting vaccination as a primary prevention measure, e.g., healthcare workers (HCWs), sometimes have doubts regarding vaccination. Since 2014, this Public Health problem has been increasing in 90% of countries worldwide, to the extent that in 2019 it was listed as one of the ten greatest threats to global health by the World Health Organization (WHO). VH has also affected COVID-19 vaccination, hampering the achievement of desired vaccination coverage. Monitoring this trend by studying people’s behaviour and attitudes could be a useful tool to aid Public Health, in orienting vaccination policies and designing new health education and continuous training interventions, aimed at both the general public and accountable cohorts, such as HCWs.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This shows that, as with immunological memory with regard to SARS-CoV-2, the memory of scientific data also tends to decline over time due to emotional factors. This illustrates why institutions must also administer booster doses of medical–scientific messages, conveyed correctly and appropriately [ 19 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge and Behaviours towards Immunisation Programmes: Vaccine Hesitancy during the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

Dettori

Arghittu

Castiglia

2022

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although some public officials have endorsed the COVID-19 vaccine, others have fostered vaccine hesitancy by broadcasting misinformation (ie, inaccurate health information), which is often disseminated widely via social media [ 7 , 8 ]. The prevalence of US adults who indicate they primarily get news information from social media (ie, 68%) [ 9 ] has given rise to an infodemic , wherein public confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine is shaken by the overload of COVID-19 misinformation on social media [ 10 - 12 ]. Indeed, Loomba et al found that exposure to COVID-19 vaccine misinformation significantly decreases the intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccine [ 13 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, to assess how effective vaccination campaigns are against COVID-19 misinformation, such as fact-checking messages on social media, it is important to investigate the actual impact on the public's attitude toward the COVID-19 vaccine. Previous experimental studies have shown that fact-checking interventions can promote people’s positive attitude toward vaccines and increase the accuracy of beliefs about vaccination [ 12 , 23 ]. However, empirical observational evidence for fact-checking messages’ effects on the public's attitude toward the COVID-19 vaccine in the real world is still lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Vaccine Fact-Checking Posts on Facebook: Observational Study

Xue¹,

Gong²,

Stevens³

2022

J Med Internet Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Effective interventions aimed at correcting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, known as fact-checking messages, are needed to combat the mounting antivaccine infodemic and alleviate vaccine hesitancy. Objective This work investigates (1) the changes in the public's attitude toward COVID-19 vaccines over time, (2) the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine fact-checking information on social media engagement and attitude change, and (3) the emotional and linguistic features of the COVID-19 vaccine fact-checking information ecosystem. Methods We collected a data set of 12,553 COVID-19 vaccine fact-checking Facebook posts and their associated comments (N=122,362) from January 2020 to March 2022 and conducted a series of natural language processing and statistical analyses to investigate trends in public attitude toward the vaccine in COVID-19 vaccine fact-checking posts and comments, and emotional and linguistic features of the COVID-19 fact-checking information ecosystem. Results The percentage of fact-checking posts relative to all COVID-19 vaccine posts peaked in May 2020 and then steadily decreased as the pandemic progressed (r=–0.92, df=21, t=–10.94, 95% CI –0.97 to –0.82, P<.001). The salience of COVID-19 vaccine entities was significantly lower in comments (mean 0.03, SD 0.03, t=39.28, P<.001) than in posts (mean 0.09, SD 0.11). Third-party fact checkers have been playing a more important role in more fact-checking over time (r=0.63, df=25, t=4.06, 95% CI 0.33-0.82, P<.001). COVID-19 vaccine fact-checking posts continued to be more analytical (r=0.81, df=25, t=6.88, 95% CI 0.62-0.91, P<.001) and more confident (r=0.59, df=25, t=3.68, 95% CI 0.27-0.79, P=.001) over time. Although comments did not exhibit a significant increase in confidence over time, tentativeness in comments significantly decreased (r=–0.62, df=25, t=–3.94, 95% CI –0.81 to –0.31, P=.001). In addition, although hospitals receive less engagement than other information sources, the comments expressed more positive attitudinal valence in comments compared to other information sources (b=0.06, 95% CI 0.00-0.12, t=2.03, P=.04). Conclusions The percentage of fact-checking posts relative to all posts about the vaccine steadily decreased after May 2020. As the pandemic progressed, third-party fact checkers played a larger role in posting fact-checking COVID-19 vaccine posts. COVID-19 vaccine fact-checking posts continued to be more analytical and more confident over time, reflecting increased confidence in posts. Similarly, tentativeness in comments decreased; this likewise suggests that public uncertainty diminished over time. COVID-19 fact-checking vaccine posts from hospitals yielded more positive attitudes toward vaccination than other information sources. At the same time, hospitals received less engagement than other information sources. This suggests that hospitals should invest more in generating engaging public health campaigns on social media.

show abstract

“…2021 could be called the Year of the Vaccine, when according to the British weekly The Economist [ 8 ] scientists “showed how vaccines and medicines can save hundreds of millions of lives”, or mRNA’s breakout year [ 9 ] with a totally different perspective on drugs, and the word vax —as a shorthand for a vaccine—was declared Word of the Year [ 10 ]. Once again, we chemists have proven ourselves to be innovators in solving problems in the service of mankind.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemophobia and passion: why chemists should desire Marcel Proust

Chalupa

Nesměrák

2022

Monatsh Chem

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article, we introduce a new communication strategy called the “communication success dimension” for the suppression and eradication of chemophobia. We explain, using recent examples, that chemophobia presents a danger not only to the science of chemistry but also to humankind. Based on the latest insights from communication research, we emphasize the need to bring more passion, dedication, and human factors into the communication of chemistry. We demonstrate the application of this new strategy by employing Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time to combat chemophobia. Graphical abstract

show abstract

The ephemeral effects of fact-checks on COVID-19 misperceptions in the United States, Great Britain and Canada

Cited by 64 publications

References 36 publications

Knowledge and Behaviours towards Immunisation Programmes: Vaccine Hesitancy during the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

Knowledge and Behaviours towards Immunisation Programmes: Vaccine Hesitancy during the COVID-19 Pandemic Era

COVID-19 Vaccine Fact-Checking Posts on Facebook: Observational Study

Chemophobia and passion: why chemists should desire Marcel Proust

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About