Using psychology to understand and fight health misinformation

Misinformation spreads rapidly across social media and other online platforms, posing risks to individual health and societal well-being. Research on the psychology of misinformation has proliferated in recent years, yet many questions remain about how and why misinformation spreads, how it affects behavior, and how best to counter it. Answering these questions well depends in part on how misinformation is defined; it can include inaccurate news, conspiracy theories, disinformation campaigns, propaganda, and slanted reporting. In this report, we define misinformation as “any information that is demonstrably false or otherwise misleading, regardless of its source or intention.”

Misinformation has been described as a global harm, but the amount of misinformation encountered by people is difficult to determine. Estimates indicate that it accounts for 0.2% to 29% of overall news consumption, but the proportion may be higher for specific groups or for topics such as health. The problem with current estimates is that they tend to be platform-specific, constrained to text-based information (vs. images or videos), based on limited public data, and insensitive to the fact that some groups are disproportionately targeted. Further insight requires large-scale studies in real-world settings across different social media platforms.

This report describes the best available psychological science on misinformation, particularly as it relates to health. It offers eight specific recommendations to help scientists, policymakers, and health professionals respond to the ongoing threats posed by misinformation.

Our analysis centers on three crucial questions:

1. What are the psychological factors that make people susceptible to believe and act on misinformation?
2. How and why does misinformation spread?
3. What interventions can be used to counter misinformation effectively?

Although significant questions remain, the available psychological science yields important conclusions about the origins and spread of misinformation and how to counter it effectively. Based on these findings, we present eight specific recommendations for scientists, policymakers, media, and the public to meet the ongoing risk of misinformation to health, well-being, and civic life:

1. Avoid repeating misinformation without including a correction.
2. Collaborate with social media companies to understand and reduce the spread of harmful misinformation.
3. Use misinformation correction strategies with tools already proven to promote healthy behaviors (e.g., counseling, skills training, incentives, social norms).
4. Leverage trusted sources to counter misinformation and provide accurate health information.
5. Debunk misinformation often and repeatedly using evidence-based methods.
6. Prebunk misinformation to inoculate susceptible audiences by building skills and resilience from an early age.
7. Demand data access and transparency from social media companies for scientific research on misinformation.
8. Fund basic and translational research into the psychology of health misinformation, including effective ways to counter it.

Read more details about the recommendations