Health-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Psychol Med
; 51(10): 1763-1769, 2021 07.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1337070
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Social media platforms have long been recognised as major disseminators of health misinformation. Many previous studies have found a negative association between health-protective behaviours and belief in the specific form of misinformation popularly known as 'conspiracy theory'. Concerns have arisen regarding the spread of COVID-19 conspiracy theories on social media.METHODS:
Three questionnaire surveys of social media use, conspiracy beliefs and health-protective behaviours with regard to COVID-19 among UK residents were carried out online, one using a self-selecting sample (N = 949) and two using stratified random samples from a recruited panel (N = 2250, N = 2254).RESULTS:
All three studies found a negative relationship between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and COVID-19 health-protective behaviours, and a positive relationship between COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and use of social media as a source of information about COVID-19. Studies 2 and 3 also found a negative relationship between COVID-19 health-protective behaviours and use of social media as a source of information, and Study 3 found a positive relationship between health-protective behaviours and use of broadcast media as a source of information.CONCLUSIONS:
When used as an information source, unregulated social media may present a health risk that is partly but not wholly reducible to their role as disseminators of health-related conspiracy beliefs.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Health Behavior
/
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
/
Consumer Health Information
/
Information Seeking Behavior
/
Social Media
/
Online Social Networking
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Psychol Med
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S003329172000224X
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