This Is What Happens When You Are Afraid. A Case Study of the Reach and Meanings of Fake Anecdotal Information During the Covid-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

Social media proves to be extremely important in crises. During the Covid-19 pandemic, social media can have a dual role. Firstly, it can act as a crucial medium of communication for all the people that are affected by the lockdown. Secondly, it offers the ideal context for the development and spread of various dubious information, "fake news," and conspiracy theories. The present study was interested in the subordinate role of social media. During the first days of the Romanian emergency state, an anecdote was massively shared on Facebook. This story presented how Avicenna used an animal experiment to show how induced fear is enough to kill a living being. However, the anecdote appears not to be based on any real evidence. The current analysis had two main aims: (1) to study the reach of the initial Facebook post and (2) to verify how peoples' posts, comments, and messages on the post reinforce different narratives. The results showed that the initial post had the highest reach in the first days after it was published and that it received thousands of subsequent shares. Also, after analyzing the content of the comments, the paper showed that numerous topics were present. The most important ones either showed support to the anecdotal evidence and accepted that fear is a significant risk factor or considered that the anecdote presents evidence for various conspiracy theories. In the end, the paper presented how both narratives can lead to unfavorable outcomes for the population, and which are the best solutions to raise the level of online content literacy among social media users.