Do we need the criminalization of medical fake news?

Mamak, Kamil

doi:10.1007/s11019-020-09996-7

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…20 Scientific communities fear the potential of medical misinformation to derail future epidemiological interventions for the prevention and management of new and emerging diseases, particularly following the global public reaction to COVID-19 lockdown measures and vaccination policies. 20,21 Suggestions to criminalise the act of spreading (medical) misinformation have been on the rise 22 ; however, concerns have been noted from human rights, targeting the "free speech" narrative and expressing concerns over the possibility of further restrictive policies being implemented in the future. 23 The general mismanagement of communication initiatives and a lack of evidence-based policymaking during the COVID-19 pandemic in part contributed to the facilitation of speculative theories and medical misinformation on a global scale.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and medical misinformation: lessons to be learned from the COVID-19 infodemic

Lees

2024

Evidence

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Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a multifactorial condition for which there is no known aetiology. The lack of evidence base surrounding the aetiology of IBS coupled with the variety of management tools employed by affected patients has meant that the condition has been an increased topic of interest amongst “patient influencers”. While there is a notable value to such influencers on social media in terms of peer-to-peer support and fostering discussions of lived experiences with an affected community, concerns remain over the quality and accuracy of information being shared. Medical misinformation poses a new global health threat; medical professionals remain powerless to filter through what has been dubbed by some as “misinformation mayhem”. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant gaps in health literacy and a lack of trust in the medical and political systems that were responsible for communicating health information. This literature review outlines the missed opportunities for counteracting medical misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic and identifies the ways in which these lessons could be applied to future communication and interaction with IBS (mis)information within the social media sphere.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and medical misinformation: lessons to be learned from the COVID-19 infodemic

Lees

2024

Evidence

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“…Finally, fake news is also blamed for decreased immunization against measles, rubella, and mumps because of its alleged connection with autism (Carrieri et al, 2019; Hansen & Schmidtblaicher, 2021; Kata, 2010) and refusal of the COVID‐19 vaccines (Galhardi et al, 2022; Kanozia & Arya, 2021; Mamak, 2021; Montagni et al, 2021). While most of these studies focus on stated vaccination intentions, the unique timing of our data collection (i.e., midway through the pandemic when attitudes toward COVID‐19 vaccination were highly polarized) allows us to focus on a behavioral measure, represented by actual vaccination status.…”

Section: Relationship To the Literature And Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reasoning versus prior beliefs: The case of COVID‐19 fake news

Čavojová,

Lorko,

Šrol

2024

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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We conduct a survey on a large representative sample of Slovak population to examine the role of analytic thinking, scientific reasoning, conspiracy mentality, and conspiracy beliefs in trust in COVID‐19 fake news and willingness to share it. We find that the ability to distinguish between fake and real news about COVID‐19 is significantly negatively correlated with conspiracy mentality and with beliefs in pandemic‐related conspiracy theories. Analytic thinking is not a significant predictor. Although fake news is generally less likely to be trusted and shared than real news, when fake news is consistent with preexisting opinions, people are more willing to share it compared with belief‐consistent real news. We also find that people are mostly overconfident in their ability to distinguish between fake and real news, and we identify a subpopulation of people that refuse to get vaccinated who trust fake COVID‐19 news significantly more than real news. Thus, consistency with one's beliefs is the best indicator of trust in fake news and willingness to share such news.

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“…Finally, fake news is also blamed for decreased immunization against measles, rubella, and mumps because of its alleged connection with autism (Carrieri et al, 2019;Hansen & Schmidtblaicher, 2021;Kata, 2010) and refusal of the COVID-19 vaccines (Galhardi et al, 2022;Kanozia & Arya, 2021;Mamak, 2021;Montagni et al, 2021). While most of these studies focus on stated vaccination intentions, the unique timing of our data collection (i.e., midway through the pandemic when attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination were highly polarized) allows us to focus on a behavioral measure, represented by actual vaccination status.…”

Section: Relationship To the Literature And Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reasoning vs. prior beliefs: The case of COVID-19 fake news

Cavojova,

Lorko,

Šrol

2023

Preprint

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We survey a large representative sample of the Slovak population to examine the role of analytic thinking, scientific reasoning, conspiracy mentality, and conspiracy beliefs in trust in COVID-19 fake news and willingness to share it. We find that the ability to distinguish between fake and real news about COVID-19 is significantly negatively correlated with conspiracy mentality and with beliefs in pandemic-related conspiracy theories. Analytic thinking is not a significant predictor. Although fake news is generally less likely to be trusted and shared than real news, when fake news is consistent with preexisting opinions, people are more willing to share it compared to belief-consistent real news. We also find that people are mostly overconfident in their ability to distinguish between fake and real news and we identify a sub-population of people that refuse to get vaccinated who trust fake COVID-19 news significantly more than real news. Thus, consistency with one’s beliefs is the best indicator of trust in fake news and willingness to share such news.

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Do we need the criminalization of medical fake news?

Cited by 15 publications

References 71 publications

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and medical misinformation: lessons to be learned from the COVID-19 infodemic

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and medical misinformation: lessons to be learned from the COVID-19 infodemic

Reasoning versus prior beliefs: The case of COVID‐19 fake news

Reasoning vs. prior beliefs: The case of COVID-19 fake news

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