What predicts people's belief in COVID-19 misinformation? A retrospective study using a nationwide online survey among adults residing in the United States.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Tackling infodemics with flooding misinformation is key to managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet only a few studies have attempted to understand the characteristics of the people who believe in misinformation.

Methods

Data was used from an online survey that was administered in April 2020 to 6518 English-speaking adult participants in the United States. We created binary variables to represent four misinformation categories related to COVID-19: general COVID-19-related, vaccine/anti-vaccine, COVID-19 as an act of bioterrorism, and mode of transmission. Using binary logistic regression and the LASSO regularization, we then identified the important predictors of belief in each type of misinformation. Nested vector bootstrapping approach was used to estimate the standa

SUBMITTER: Kim S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9673212 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature