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…
Decision Psychology | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Global Governance | Culture/Society | Government/Law | 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…
Decision Psychology | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | 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…
Decision Psychology | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Social Determinants | Culture/Society -
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…
Decision Psychology | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Child/Nutrition | Social Determinants | Culture/Society | 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…
Decision Psychology | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Social Determinants | Culture/Society | Government/Law -
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…
Decision Psychology | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America | Social Determinants | Culture/Society -
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…
Decision Psychology | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America | Preferences/Values | Infectious Diseases | Social Determinants | Policy/Regulation | Culture/Society | Education/Labor | Government/Law -
ReportPublication 2010Priorities for the National Vaccine Plan
The authors examine the complexities of the vaccine enterprise, a fundamental component of preventive medicine …
The authors examine the complexities of the vaccine enterprise, a fundamental component of preventive medicine and public health, from research and development of new vaccines to financing and reimbursement of immunization services. The current climate, socially, economically and politically, presents challenges and opportunities to the U.S. to strengthen the existing systems of developing, manufacturing, regulating, distributing, funding, and administering safe and effective vaccines for all people. The authors present recommendations for priority actions intended to…
Evidence Synthesis | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America | Technology Assessment | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health Systems | Policy/Regulation | Economics/Finance -
Lesson/ModuleWeb Portal, Teaching Resource 2017Translating Science Into Policy: The Role of Decision Science
This module introduces the basic techniques of “decision science” that are used in policy making. …
This module introduces the basic techniques of “decision science” that are used in policy making. The materials are mainly prescriptive, focusing on how to make good decisions, but also include examples of the systematic ways that people make poor decisions. The module: (1) surveys the meanings of utility; (2) examines decision making in conditions where risk is not an issue; (3) examines decision making in conditions where risk is an issue because the likelihood of…
Decision Psychology | Health/Medicine | Science/Technology | North America | Preferences/Values | Decision Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Policy/Regulation | Government/Law | Global | College | Graduate | Doctoral | Professional | Critical Thinking/Analysis | Decision Making/Leadership | Policy Translation