I have spent much of my career studying ways to blunt the effects of disinformation and help the public make sense of the complexities of politics and science. When my colleagues and I probed the relation between the consumption of misinformation and the embrace, or dismissal, of protective behaviors that will ultimately stop the coronavirus’s spread, the results were clear: Those who believe false ideas and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and vaccines are less likely to engage in mask wearing, social distancing, hand washing and vaccination. …
Equipped with a few tools, we can each become part of a larger misinformation-fighting system—as I like to call it, a science defense system. CONTINUED
Kathleen Hall Jamieson (Penn), Scientific American
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