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Inoculating Against Fake News About COVID-19

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

van der Linden, Sander 
Roozenbeek, Jon 
Compton, Josh 

Abstract

The outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been accompanied by a large amount of misleading and false information about the virus, especially on social media. In this article, we explore the coronavirus “infodemic” and how behavioral scientists may seek to address this problem. We detail the scope of the problem and discuss the negative influence that COVID-19 misinformation can have on the widespread adoption of health protective behaviors in the population. In response, we explore how insights from the behavioral sciences can be leveraged to manage an effective societal response to curb the spread of misinformation about the virus. In particular, we discuss the theory of psychological inoculation (or prebunking) as an efficient vehicle for conferring large-scale psychological resistance against fake news.

Description

Keywords

Psychology, COVID-19, fake news, misinformation, inoculation, infodemic

Journal Title

Frontiers in Psychology

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1664-1078

Volume Title

11

Publisher

Frontiers Media S.A.