Factors Predicting Willingness to Share COVID-19 Misinformation

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Computational Social Science
• Information Science

Background:

• The rapid spread of misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic poses a significant public health challenge.
• Understanding the psychological and social factors influencing the dissemination of false information is crucial for developing effective countermeasures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate individual differences in political orientation, social dominance orientation (SDO), traditionalism, conspiracy ideation, and attitudes toward science as predictors of willingness to share COVID-19 misinformation online.
• To identify socio-cognitive profiles of individuals who contribute to the spread of scientific misinformation.

Main Methods:

• A preregistered exploratory survey was conducted.
• Statistical analyses were employed to identify patterns and models of individual differences predicting misinformation sharing.

Main Results:

• Two distinct models of individual differences were identified, predicting the willingness to share misinformation on social media.
• Political beliefs, particularly SDO, played a significant role in predicting the sharing of misinformation, especially conspiracy theories related to COVID-19.

Conclusions:

• The study contributes to a socio-cognitive profile of individuals acting as vectors for scientific misinformation.
• Findings can inform computational models for understanding and mitigating misinformation diffusion online.