Resources Repository
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ArticlePublication 2017Increasing Vaccination: Putting Psychological Science into Action
Vaccination is one of the great achievements of the 20th century, yet persistent public health …
Vaccination is one of the great achievements of the 20th century, yet persistent public health problems include inadequate, delayed, and unstable vaccination uptake. Psychology offers three general propositions for understanding and intervening to increase uptake where vaccines are available and affordable. The first proposition is that thoughts and feelings can motivate getting vaccinated. Hundreds of studies have shown that risk beliefs and anticipated regret about infectious disease correlate reliably with getting vaccinated; low confidence in…
Health/Medicine | North America | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Global Governance | Culture/Society | Government/Law | Science/Technology | Global -
ArticlePublication 2021COVID-19 Infodemic: Twitter vs. Facebook
The global spread of COVID-19 is affected by the spread of related misinformation – the …
The global spread of COVID-19 is affected by the spread of related misinformation – the so-called COVID-19 infodemic – that makes populations more vulnerable to the disease through resistance to mitigation efforts. This article analyzes the prevalence and diffusion of links to low-credibility content about the COVID-19 pandemic across Twitter and Facebook. They characterize cross-platform similarities and differences in popular sources, diffusion patterns, influencers, coordination, and automation. Comparing the two platforms, authors found divergence among…
Health/Medicine | North America | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Science/Technology | Global -
ArticlePublication 2021COVID-19 Infodemic: Applying the Epidemiologic Model to Counter Misinformation
Throughout the world, including the U.S., medical professionals and patients are facing both a pandemic …
Throughout the world, including the U.S., medical professionals and patients are facing both a pandemic and an infodemic – the first caused by SARS-CoV-2 and the second by misinformation and disinformation. The Annenberg Public Policy Center’s tracking of social and legacy media has found that millions of people have been exposed to deceptive material alleging that SARS-CoV-2 is a hoax or that experts are exaggerating its severity and the extent of its spread, that masks…
Health/Medicine | North America | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Culture/Society | Science/Technology -
ArticlePublication 2019Countering Misinformation with Lessons from Public Health
The internet is often praised as a tool for freedom of speech, democracy, and truth. …
The internet is often praised as a tool for freedom of speech, democracy, and truth. However, the internet increasingly has become polluted by misinformation – the inadvertent spread of misleading and false information – and disinformation – the deliberate and coordinated spread of misleading and false information. Individuals online knowingly and unknowingly spread dangerous rumors and propaganda at an alarming rate, which can mislead or manipulate the worldview of those who encounter it. False information…
Health/Medicine | North America | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Child/Nutrition | Culture/Society | Science/Technology | Global -
ArticlePublication 2020Conspiracy Theories as Barriers to Controlling the Spread of COVID-19 in the U.S.
This article uses national probability survey data of U.S. adults to assess the relationship between …
This article uses national probability survey data of U.S. adults to assess the relationship between belief in three COVID-19-related conspiracy theories to adoption of preventive measures recommended by public health authorities, vaccination intentions, conspiracy beliefs, perceptions of threat, belief about the safety of vaccines, political ideology, and media exposure patterns. Authors found that conspiracy theory beliefs were highly stable across two periods of the survey and inversely related to the (1) perceived threat of the…
Health/Medicine | North America | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Culture/Society | Government/Law | Science/Technology -
ArticlePublication 2020New Fronts in the War on Misinformation
The countless false claims that have spread alongside the novel coronavirus – inaccurate advice about …
The countless false claims that have spread alongside the novel coronavirus – inaccurate advice about how to prevent the virus, for example, and conspiracy theories about its origins – are just the latest manifestation of an ongoing problem: the online proliferation of misinformation about science and health. The National Academies hosted and helped organize three events focused on countering misinformation: The MisinfoCon conference, a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, and a meeting to explore ways to expand successful…
Health/Medicine | North America | Social Determinants | Decision Psychology | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Education/Labor | Government/Law | Science/Technology -
ArticlePublication 2015Valuing Regulations Affecting Addictive or Habitual Goods
The analysis of regulations affecting addictive or habitual goods has drawn considerable controversy. Some studies …
The analysis of regulations affecting addictive or habitual goods has drawn considerable controversy. Some studies have suggested that such regulations have only small welfare benefits, as consumers value these goods despite health benefits from quitting, while other studies suggest that information or behavioral problems make existing consumption decisions a poor guide to welfare evaluation. This analysis examines potential utility offsets to health benefits of regulations affecting addictive or habitual goods theoretically and empirically. The paper…
Benefit-Cost Analysis | Health/Medicine | North America | Social Determinants | Preferences/Values | Chronic Disease/Risk | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Economics/Finance -
ArticlePublication 2011Model-Based Analyses to Compare Health and Economic Outcomes of Cancer Control: Inclusion of Disparities
In order to identify strategies that improve both population health and ensure its equitable distribution, …
In order to identify strategies that improve both population health and ensure its equitable distribution, the authors developed a typology of cancer disparities that considers types of inequalities among black, white, and Hispanic populations across different cancers. This paper reports on the typology using an existing disease simulation model of cervical cancer that was calibrated to clinical, epidemiological, and cost data in the United States and presents characteristics important for policy discussions. The typology proposed…
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Health/Medicine | North America | Social Determinants | Priority Setting/Ethics | State-Transition | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Clinical Care | Culture/Society | Science/Technology -
ArticlePublication 2021Racial and Ethnic Inequities in the Early Distribution of U.S. COVID-19 Testing Sites and Mortality
In 2020, U.S. COVID-19 testing sites were pivotal not just for diagnosis but also to …
In 2020, U.S. COVID-19 testing sites were pivotal not just for diagnosis but also to provide data that would contribute to understanding transmission. This research explored how these sites were distributed in relation to racial and ethnic demographics and its connection to observed disparities in COVID-19 outcomes. Data from mid-April to late May 2020 revealed that testing sites were not equally distributed among racial groups. Specifically, there was an overrepresentation of testing sites in areas…
Health Outcomes | Health/Medicine | North America | Social Determinants | Test Performance | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Science/Technology