Trust in COVID‐19 public health information

Abstract

Understanding the factors that influence trust in public health information is critical for designing successful public health campaigns during pandemics such as COVID ‐19. We present findings from a cross‐sectional survey of 454 US adults—243 older (65+) and 211 younger (18–64) adults—who responded to questionnaires on human values, trust in COVID ‐19 information sources, attention to information quality, self‐efficacy, and factual knowledge about COVID ‐19. Path analysis showed that trust in direct personal contacts ( B = 0.071, p = .04) and attention to information quality ( B = 0.251, p < .001) were positively related to self‐efficacy for coping with COVID ‐19. The human value of self‐transcendence, which emphasizes valuing others as equals and being concerned with their welfare, had significant positive indirect effects on self‐efficacy in coping with COVID ‐19 (mediated by attention to information quality; effect = 0.049, 95% CI 0.001–0.104) and factual knowledge about COVID ‐19 (also mediated by attention to information quality; effect = 0.037, 95% CI 0.003–0.089). Our path model offers guidance for fine‐tuning strategies for effective public health messaging and serves as a basis for further research to better understand the societal impact of COVID ‐19 and other public health crises.

Meeting People Where They Are: Hyper‐local Engagements Around COVID‐19 Misinformation in New Jersey

“…Researchers found this to be especially true with Covid‐19 misinformation (Bridgman et al, 2020). This information glut became dangerous at the pandemic's onset as people had few resources to process and filter the information, namely inadequate information about the novel coronavirus, combined with a widespread mistrust in public health institutions, scientific expertise, and government entities (Donovan et al, 2021; Verma et al, 2022).…”

“…Consistent messaging about mask‐wearing did not convince people who believe Covid‐19 is a hoax or people who think it is their right to not wear a mask (Verma et al, 2022). People's attitudes about information, in particular their trust in this information, is as important as what information they are exposed to (Sinatra et al, 2014).…”

“…Lowered trust in science means that people may be less likely to follow CDC guidelines such as masking and social distancing. Given the existing difficulties in the vaccine rollout, people deciding not to take the vaccine have made conditions ripe for harmful variants that infect, hospitalize, and kill unvaccinated people at high rates (Verma et al, 2022) Proposed interventions like pre-bunking (Dan et al, 2021), providing corrections (Bode & Vraga, 2021), supplying widespread, high-quality information, and encouraging better informational literacy are partial solutions for the problem of misinformation (Milner & Phillips, 2020;Paris, Marcello, et al, 2022). However, where these informational tactics come from is also a crucial piece of the puzzle.…”

“…Lowered trust in science means that people may be less likely to follow CDC guidelines such as masking and social distancing. Given the existing difficulties in the vaccine rollout, people deciding not to take the vaccine have made conditions ripe for harmful variants that infect, hospitalize, and kill unvaccinated people at high rates (Verma et al, 2022).…”