A person is more likely to believe an information is true, if it's been seen multiple times (Bacon, 1979; Begg et al., 1992; Hasher, Goldstein, & Top¬pino, 1977; for a review see Dechêne et al., 2010).

Repetition-based truth-effect

Inoculating someone (in the context of fake news) is an attempt to reduce an individual's susceptibility to accepting fake news by presenting them with misinformation and giving them the tools to recognize it as such. The theory comes directly from an immunological analogy about virus protection; in the psychological sense, inoculation is giving someone a "weakened" version of misleading info, which leads "mental antibodies" formed, making them "immune" to persuasion.

See "How Disinformation is Disseminated"

Inoculation Theory

- Don’t repeat wrong information because of the repition-based truth-effect.
- Institutions should work to increase people’s trust in them to reduce health-related anxiety.
- Active inoculating and prebunking.
- Repeated warnings.
- Improve people’s health literacy.


Kalamazoo College

University of Delaware

As the term indicates, health misinformation is misinformation related to health. Themes might be viruses, food safety, nutrition and vaccinations (Bode & Vraga, 2018; Chen et al., 2018; Lazer et al., 2018; Lewandowsky et al., 2012; Oh & Lee, 2019). These  misinformation can negatively affect people’s health behaviors (Chou et al., 2018; Oh & Lee, 2019). 

Health misinformation

- algorithmic
- corrective
- legislative
- psychological
- humor
- emotional refutations
- social media disclaimers

Possible solutions to Misinformation

Pan, W., Liu, D., & Fang, J. (2021). An Examination of Factors Contributing to the Acceptance of Online Health Misinformation. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 524.

Acceptance of Online Health Misinformation (Pan, Liu & Fang, 2021)

“(a) examine how factors such as anxiety about health-related issues, preexisting beliefs, and repeated exposure to health misinformation may contribute to the acceptance of the unverified information on social media, and (b), to explore
demographic differences (e.g., sex, age, education level, and social-economic status) in health misinformation acceptance”


Goals of a study by Pan, Liu & Fang (2021) about health misinformation acceptance

Pan, Liu and Fang's (2021) recommendations on how to fight the spread of health misinformation

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

Misinformation/disinformation about vaccines that can affect vaccine confidence and vaccination rates.

Vaccine Misinformation

• Previous studies show group relations and shared belief systems often correlate with vulnerability to misinformation.

• Study looks at the correlation between misperception and group affiliations, media exposure, and lived experiences.

•Focuses on the role of racial/ethnic,  religious, and partisan group affiliations relate to misperceptions people held about COVID-19



Group level misperceptions about COVID-19


 • The article addresses how the social, economic, and political contexts people live in affect how they receive information from officials and interpret and act on that information


COVID-19 health information and misinformation in the context of growing inequalities in Lebanon 


Correcting health misinformation has been found to be more effective than corrections related to political information. Ingroup protective behavior, confirmation bias, and motivated reasoning could contribute to the greater difficulty in correcting political misinformation. 

Health Misinformation Corrections

* Definition
* Terms
* Emergence
* Risks
* Similarities with and differences from diet culture

Pro-Eating Disorder Content

Social media platforms can alter algorithms to hinder the spread of misinformation and to create a distinction between how legitimate news sources and unreliable news sources appear in a person’s feed. This may also involve suggesting correct information that refutes misinformation that someone has viewed as suggested viewing
Problem: algorithms fail sometimes, they might not detect a fake news source. 

Solution to Misinformation: Algorithmic

Using fact checking to debunk misinformation.

Solution to Misinformation: Corrective

Using laws to regulate news and quell disinformation.

Solution to Misinformation: Legislative

Humor is often implemented by scientists when they present information. Humor is closely related to mirth, which refers to people's perceptions of how funny, humorous, and amusing a stimulus is. Interestingly, humor and mirth can have an effect on how scientific information is communicated. Therefore, they can likely be used as a method to combat misinformation.

Solution to Misinformation: Humor

Emotional refutations are statements that include emotional content and attempt to correct misinformation.

Solution to Misinformation: Emotional Refutations

Social Media platforms have started integrating mechanics that allow for the identification of fake news. For instance, such features have been introduced in Weibo, which is a Chinese social media platform.

Solutions to Misinformation: Social Media Disclaimers

Authors Jeff Gary and Ashkan Soltani argue that in order to reduce the spread of misinformation and harmful content on social media, rather than mandating specific content based regulations, it is more effective to address the business models under which social media platforms operate .

According to the authors, the underlying platform business models encourage and enable the spread of harmful content, including fake news. The business practice of most of these private company platforms is mainly based on tailored and targeted advertising. 

What enables targeted advertising is data collection from users. And in order to collect more data about the interests, preferences, personality, and behavior of specific users, social media platforms need to maximize the frequency and intensity with which users users interact with their platform.

Misinformation, harmful speeches, and conspiracy theories are financially advantageous to the platforms because they increase engagement of users and illicit responses. Fake news may be shared by users when it is is reaffirming of their sense of identity, community, and culture. When users spend more time on these platforms, more of their data can be collected and the more exposed they are to targeted advertising.

It is not just users that promote divisive and controversial contents; the platforms themselves promote such speech to garner user attention. Examples that the authors provide are Facebook's permission, until recently, to use the category "Jew haters" by advertisers for targeted advertisement and how Facebook distributed anti-vaccination ads to potential young mothers.

Addressing the Problem of Social Media Misinformation by Focusing on Social Media Companies' Business Practices

Researchers have been creating electronic simulations as means to train people to identify fake news. These are often presented in the form of games, and they simulate online platforms where misinformation and fake news are spread.

Electronic Simulation Interventions for Fake News

This research paper explains the potential psychology behind political misinformation, as well as how the issue type and source of the correction of misinformation may affect the effectiveness of the correction. They also include where the literature has not yet developed and how measurement methods may be involved. 

Political Misinformation Methods of Correction by Jennifer Jerit and Yangzi Zhao

Allowing users to view a list of guidelines for detecting a fake news post or article themselves. Works by priming critical thinking mechanisms. Could be a useful correction method on social media platforms like Facebook. 

Guideline Correction

A retraction of misinformation at the end of a news article significantly reduces reliance on misinformation

Official Retraction (print)

Many researchers believe that correcting the misinformation immediately on social media and news platforms is best way to stopping the spread of misinformation. A perfect example would be fact checking tweets made by verified users on twitter. However, this is being disproved to being an effective way to stopping the spread of misinformation.

Background Information: Negated Corrections and Misinformation

While most research on misinformation is aimed at adults, some research has also investigated how misinformation interventions can be used within an educational context to serve younger populations.

Solutions to Misinformation for Children

Warning-based approaches were found to be most well-liked by users and also most effective at preventing the spread of misinformation in a study investigating different types of misinformation interventions on social media.

Warning-based Approaches

- The Problem of Social Media Companies Business Practices with Misinformation
- How to solve the problem of social media companies encouraging misinformation

Social Media Companies and Misinformation

In an accuracy prompt, an individual is prompted to actively think about accuracy as a concept prior to being exposed to the piece of information that they are to evaluate (ex. news headline). Accuracy prompts are particularly useful because they are proactive rather than reactive, thus they can help prevent the sharing of misinformation in the first place in addition to avoidaing a reliance on tech companies/government regulators to be doing the discerning of whether or not a piece of information is accurate. Accuracy prompts have been shown to result in a significant increase in helping to proactively reduce the spread of misinformation, evident by the 71.7% increase in sharing discernment following the use of accuracy prompts. 

Solution to Misinformation: Accuracy Prompts

Also known as "conspiratorial ideation", this refers to the general tendency to endorse and believe in conspiracy theories. Those high in conspiracy ideations are less likely to believe in scientific findings and tend to form insular communities that restrict the exposure of correct information.

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