Aart van Stekelenburg|Gabi Schaap|Harm Veling|Moniek Buijzen
Investigating and Improving the Accuracy of US Citizens’ Beliefs About the COVID-19 Pandemic: Longitudinal Survey Study
Radboud University Nijmegen|Radboud University Nijmegen|Radboud University Nijmegen|Erasmus University Rotterdam|Radboud University Nijmegen
background covid19 infodemic surge information misinformation sparked worry publics perception coronavirus pandemic excessive information misinformation lead belief false information well reduce accurate interpretation true information incorrect beliefs covid19 pandemic might lead behavior puts people risk contracting spreading virus objective objective study twofold first attempted gain insight public beliefs novel coronavirus covid19 one worst hit countries united states second aimed test whether short intervention could improve peoples belief accuracy empowering consider scientific consensus evaluating claims related pandemic methods conducted 4week longitudinal study among us citizens starting april 27 2020 daily covid19 deaths united states peaked week measured participants belief accuracy related coronavirus covid19 asking indicate extent believed number true false statements split 5050 furthermore new survey wave included original statements four new statements two false two true statements half participants exposed intervention aimed increasing belief accuracy intervention consisted short infographic set three steps verify information searching verifying scientific consensus results total 1202 us citizens balanced regarding age gender ethnicity approximate us general public completed baseline t0 wave survey retention rate followup waves first followup wave t1 second followup wave t2 final wave t3was high 85 mean scores belief accuracy high waves scores reflecting low belief false statements high belief true statements belief accuracy scale ranged 1 indicating completely inaccurate beliefs 1 indicating completely accurate beliefs t0 mean 075 t1 mean 078 t2 mean 077 t3 mean 075 accurate beliefs correlated selfreported behavior aimed preventing coronavirus spreading eg social distancing r waves 026 029 p values less 001 associated trust scientists ie higher trust associated accurate beliefs political orientation ie liberal democratic participants held accurate beliefs conservative republican participants primary news source ie participants reporting cnn fox news main news source held less accurate beliefs others intervention significantly improve belief accuracy conclusions supposed infodemic reflected us citizens beliefs covid19 pandemic people quite able figure facts relatively early days crisis calling question prevalence misinformation publics susceptibility misinformation