Health-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency

@article{Allington2020HealthprotectiveBS,
  title={Health-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency},
  author={Daniel Allington and Bobby Duffy and Simon Wessely and Nayana Dhavan and James Rubin},
  journal={Psychological Medicine},
  year={2020},
  pages={1 - 7}
}
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… Expand
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214 Citations
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    Health-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency – CORRIGENDUM
    Dynamic relationships between different types of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and protective behaviour: A four-wave panel study in Poland.
    TLDR
    The results showed that changes in the adherence to pro-health measures were negatively predicted by conspiracy mentality and a feeling of threat that the solutions introduced by the government may limit civil rights. Expand
    Are COVID‐19 conspiracies a threat to public health? Psychological characteristics and health protective behaviours of believers
    TLDR
    Unexpectedly, COVID‐19 conspiracy believers adhered to basic health guidelines and advanced health protective measures as strictly as non‐believers, and were less willing to undertake health protective behaviours that were outside of their personal control, perceiving these as having a negative balance of risks and benefits. Expand
    The Relationship Between Social Media Use and Beliefs in Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation
    TLDR
    It is found that individuals who get their news from social media and use social media frequently express more beliefs in some types of conspiracy theories and misinformation, and that social media use becomes more strongly associated with conspiracy beliefs as conspiracy thinking intensifies. Expand
    Unwillingness to engage in behaviors that protect against COVID-19: the role of conspiracy beliefs, trust, and endorsement of complementary and alternative medicine
    TLDR
    How people respond to the guidelines is more strongly and consistently related to the degree of trust they feel in the information sources, than to their tendency to hold conspiracy beliefs or endorse CAM. Expand
    Consuming Information Related to COVID-19 on Social Media Among Older Adults and Its Association With Anxiety, Social Trust in Information, and COVID-Safe Behaviors: Cross-sectional Telephone Survey
    TLDR
    Older adults who rely on social media for COVID-19-related information exhibited more anxiety symptoms, while showing mixed effects on attitudes and behaviors, suggesting that social media may have caused more confusion than consolidating a consistent effort against the pandemic. Expand
    The Impact of Social Media Exposure and Interpersonal Discussion on Intention of COVID-19 Vaccination among Nurses
    TLDR
    The prevalence of intention of COVID-19 vaccination was relatively low among Chinese nurses and health promotion is needed, and frequent social media exposure and interpersonal discussion potentially enhanced vaccination intentions via increased perceived vaccine efficacy. Expand
    Patterns of Media Use, Strength of Belief in COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories, and the Prevention of COVID-19 From March to July 2020 in the United States: Survey Study
    TLDR
    The findings point to the need for greater efforts on the part of commentators, reporters, and guests on conservative media to report verifiable information about the pandemic and suggest that social media platforms need to be more aggressive in downgrading, blocking, and counteracting claims about COVID-19 vaccines. Expand
    The dangers of blind trust: Examining the interplay among social media news use, misinformation identification, and news trust on conspiracy beliefs
    TLDR
    A U.S. national survey is conducted to examine the association between social media news consumption and conspiracy beliefs specific to COVID-19 and general conspiracy beliefs and proposes a moderated moderation model by including misinformation identification. Expand
    Patterns of Media Use, Strength of Belief in COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories, and the Prevention of COVID-19 From March to July 2020 in the United States: Survey Study (Preprint)
    BACKGROUND Holding conspiracy beliefs regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has been associated with reductions in both actions to prevent the spread of the infection (eg, mask… Expand
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