A study finds that those who learn more about the new coronavirus from conservative outlets, social media, and online news aggregators are more likely to be disinformed.
Though the new coronavirus that triggers COVID-19 is still fairly new, individuals currently understand much about it, including its ways of transmission, and how we can slow that transmission down.
Conveying this details to the public, however, can be difficult. Now, a research study of more than 1,000 individuals in the United States discovers that their understanding of SARS-CoV-2 carefully lines up with the sources of their info.
Individuals in the U.S. who learnt more about COVID-19 from conservative outlets, social networks, and online news aggregators are regularly misinformed about the illness, the research study concludes.
The research study from researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, appears in the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review’s April 2020 problem.
The research study reports the outcomes of a study that the researchers carried out from March 3 to March 8, 2020, with a nationally representative sample of 1,008 U.S. adults. The study’s outcomes have a margin of mistake of & PlusMinus; 3.57%.
On a favorable note, the survey discovered that 87%of participants comprehended the value of comprehensive hand cleaning as a way to stop the spread of COVID-19
The survey likewise found, nevertheless, some unpleasant mistaken beliefs that considerable numbers of participants held:
- 23%, or more than 1 in 5 participants, considered it either probably or definitely real that the Chinese federal government developed COVID-19 as a bioweapon.
- 10%, or 1 in 10, believed the very same of the U.S. government.
- 19%, practically 1 in 5, thought it was probably or definitely real that some at the Centers for Disease Control and Avoidance (CDC) overemphasized the degree of danger that the illness postured, as part of a plot to prevent Donald Trump’s election for a 2nd term as President.
- 21%, 1 in 5, believed that taking vitamin C could probably or absolutely prevent infection.
There is no evidence that any of these beliefs are precise.
The scientists study