Infodemics: Do healthcare professionals detect corona-related false news stories better than students?
PLoS One
; 16(3): e0247517, 2021.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1127787
ABSTRACT
False news stories cause welfare losses and fatal health consequences. To limit its dissemination, it is essential to know what determines the ability to distinguish between true and false news stories. In our experimental study, we present subjects corona-related stories taken from the media from various categories (e.g. social isolation, economic consequences, direct health consequences, and strong exaggeration). The subject's task is to evaluate the stories as true or false. Besides students with and without healthcare background, we recruit healthcare professionals to increase the external validity of our study. Our main findings are (i) Healthcare professionals perform similar to students in correctly distinguishing between true and false news stories. (ii) The propensity to engage in analytical thinking and actively open-minded thinking is positively associated with the ability to distinguish between true and false. (iii) We find that the residence of the subjects (East- or West-Germany) plays only a minor role. (iv) If news stories are in line with existing narratives, subjects tend to think that the stories are true.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Students
/
Health Personnel
/
Communications Media
/
Knowledge
/
Information Dissemination
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Young adult
Language:
English
Journal:
PLoS One
Journal subject:
Science
/
Medicine
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Journal.pone.0247517
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