People with a poor understanding of quantitative information are more likely to endorse myths about COVID-19 and those who believe such misinformation are less likely to follow public health guidance such as wearing a mask in public, according to new research. The study appears in the journal
Royal Society Open Science.
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“Misinformation has been one of the major focal points of our research since early 2018. Misinformation about COVID-19 has rapidly become a significant problem, with the WHO declaring an ‘infodemic’ and people setting fire to mobile phone masts because of conspiracies surrounding 5G networks,”
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The most consistent predictor of susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation, however, was performance on the numeracy tests. Those tests did “not merely measure mathematical ability” but instead assessed “the ability of individuals to understand and use quantitative information more broadly,” the researchers noted.
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The study, “
Susceptibility to misinformation about COVID-19 around the world“, was authored by Jon Roozenbeek, Claudia R. Schneider, Sarah Dryhurst, John Kerr, Alexandra L. J. Freeman, Gabriel Recchia, Anne Marthe van der Bles and Sander van der Linden.