Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2021Measuring the News and Its Impact on Democracy
Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the deliberate spread of misinformation online, and on social …
Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the deliberate spread of misinformation online, and on social media in particular, has generated extraordinary concern, in large part because of its potential effects on public opinion, political polarization, and ultimately democratic decision making. Recently, however, some have argued that both the prevalence and consumption of “fake news” per se is extremely low compared with other types of news and news-relevant content. Although neither prevalence nor consumption is a…
Science/Technology | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Preferences/Values | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | North America -
ReportPublication 2017Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda
Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, …
Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, people face an increasing need to integrate information from science with their personal values and other considerations as they make important life decisions about medical care, the safety of foods, what to do about climate change, and many other issues. Communicating science effectively, however, is a complex task and an acquired skill. Moreover, the approaches to communicating science that will…
Science/Technology | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Preferences/Values | Priority Setting/Ethics | Climate/Environment | Culture/Society | Energy/Engineering | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | North America -
ReviewPublication 2021European News Consumers' Perceptions of Misinformation
This study indicated that news users across ten different European countries are quite concerned about …
This study indicated that news users across ten different European countries are quite concerned about misinformation in their information environment. Respondents were most likely to associate politicians, corporations, and foreign actors with misinformation. They perceived misinformation to be most common for topics like immigration, the economy, and the environment. This offered support for the increasingly more relative and politicized status of facts in people’s credibility perceptions. Yet, differences across sources and issues were relatively modest,…
Science/Technology | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Preferences/Values | Culture/Society | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | Europe -
OrganizationWeb Portal 2024Public Health Communications Collaborative
The COVID-19 pandemic has powerfully demonstrated the critical need for public health protections. Misinformation and …
The COVID-19 pandemic has powerfully demonstrated the critical need for public health protections. Misinformation and conflicting messages about COVID-19 have confused Americans and eroded trust in public health organizations. Maintaining and strengthening the credibility of these organizations at the federal, state, and local levels is critical to making communities healthier and ultimately saving lives. The Public Health Communications Collaborative (PHCC) was formed in 2020 to coordinate and amplify public health messaging on COVID-19 and increase…
Science/Technology | Social Determinants | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Health/Medicine | North America -
ReviewPublication 2021Prevalence of Health Misinformation on Social Media: Systematic Review
This systematic review aimed to identify the main health misinformation topics and their prevalence on …
This systematic review aimed to identify the main health misinformation topics and their prevalence on different social media platforms, with focus on methodological quality and the diverse solutions that are being implemented to address this public health concern. The authors defined health misinformation as a health-related claim that is based on anecdotal evidence, false, or misleading owing to the lack of existing scientific knowledge. They included (1) articles that focused on health misinformation in social…
Science/Technology | Social Determinants | Health Systems | Culture/Society | Health/Medicine | North America -
ArticlePublication 2018How to Unring the Bell: A Meta-Analytic Approach to Correction of Misinformation
This study reports on a meta-analysis that attempts to correct misinformation. Results indicate that corrective …
This study reports on a meta-analysis that attempts to correct misinformation. Results indicate that corrective messages have a moderate influence on belief in misinformation; however, it is more difficult to correct for misinformation in the context of politics and marketing than health. Correction of real-world misinformation is more challenging, as opposed to constructed misinformation. Rebuttals are more effective than forewarnings, and appeals to coherence outperform fact-checking, and appeals to credibility. This description was adapted from…
Science/Technology | Social Determinants | Culture/Society | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine | Global | North America -
ArticlePublication 1964Epidemics and Rumors
Goffman and Newill directed attention to the analogy between the spreading of an infectious disease …
Goffman and Newill directed attention to the analogy between the spreading of an infectious disease and the dissemination of information. This article examines the spreading of a rumor from the point of view of mathematical epidemiology and briefly reports on work to be published in detail elsewhere. Authors emphasize that a mathematical model for the spreading of rumors can be constructed in a number of different ways, depending on the mechanism postulated to describe the…
Science/Technology | Infectious Diseases | Preferences/Values | Culture/Society | Health/Medicine | Global -
ArticlePublication 2018Addressing Health-Related Misinformation on Social Media
Policy makers and the social media industry grapple with the challenge of curbing fake news, …
Policy makers and the social media industry grapple with the challenge of curbing fake news, disinformation, and hate speech; and the field of medicine is similarly confronted with the spread of false, inaccurate, or incomplete health information. This viewpoint argues that medical, public health, social science, and computer science experts must begin working together via interdisciplinary research to address health misinformation on social media, with a focus on the following four themes: (1) defining the…
Science/Technology | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Culture/Society | Health/Medicine | North America -
ToolInteractive 2020COVID-19 Antibody Tests: Calculator for Interpreting Test Results
Antibody testing can determine previous exposure to SARS-CoV-2 virus. This interactive calculator, linked to the article …
Antibody testing can determine previous exposure to SARS-CoV-2 virus. This interactive calculator, linked to the article below* on antibody testing for SARS-CoV-2 virus, allows users to vary the prior probability of infection, the sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing, and the specificity of SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing. Key points made in the article accompanying the interactive include: (1) antibody testing is likely to be most useful 2 weeks after infection, (2) sensitivity and specificity will vary over time and…
Science/Technology | Infectious Diseases | Probability/Bayes | Test Performance | Technology Assessment | Clinical Care | Health/Medicine