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uk-phone-masts-attacked-amid-5g-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory.

UK phone masts attacked amid 5G-coronavirus conspiracy theory 

N. Vigdor. Man Fatally Poisons Himself While Self-Medicating for Coronavirus, Doctor Says, 2020 (accessed March 24, 2020). URL https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/us/chloroquine-poisoning-coronavirus.html.

Man Fatally Poisons Himself While Self-Medicating for Coronavirus, Doctor Says 

Misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic poses severe public health risks. Its direct and indirect consequences include exponential disease spread, accidental deaths from unproven self-medication, and property destruction, such as the burning of 5G cell towers driven by conspiracy theories.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

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One recent event that led to a surge of health misinformation was the COVID-19 Pandemic. Misinformation spreading had dangerous consequences, such as causing people to overreact (trying ineffective treatments, hoarding goods) or underreact (neglect public-safety measures, unintentionally spread the virus). 

Misinformation and the COVID-19 Pandemic

While it remains certain that consequences can arise from believing fake news, the extent to this remains unclear. Specifically, there is limited research on whether believing fake news can influence an individual's intentions to change their personal behavior. Researchers such as Greene & Murphy (2021) aim to breach this gap in scientific literature to determine if exposure to fake news related to the COVID-19 pandemic will impact participants' intentions to alter their behavior in light of the recent coronavirus outbreak. 

Effects of COVID-19 Related Fake News on Behavioral Intentions

Pennycook et al. tested the inattention-based account of misinformation sharing as it relates to COVID-19 misinformation. They conducted two studies. The goal of the first study was to find correlations between personal characteristics and the ability to discern true or false headlines under different conditions. The goal of the second study was to see if subtly reminding people to consider accuracy reduced misinformation sharing related to COVID-19. 

Inattention-based misinformation and the COVID-19 Pandemic

The goal of the study was to study/determine the factors that lead to the sharing of misinformation. Apuke & Omar analyzed data to determine the effects of six variables on the outcome of COVID-19 fake news sharing. The six variables are:
- altruism
- information sharing 
- entertainment
- socialisation
- information seeking
- pass time

Fake news and COVID-19: modelling the predictors of fake news sharing among social media users

In this study researchers explored susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation aand it's effect on self-reported behavior in five countries around the world: the UK, Ireland, Spain, the USA and Mexico.

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