Thread by @timethief

#VaccinationResistance in Historical Perspective
oah.org/tah/issues/201…

The politicization of science can limit the positive impacts that scientific advances can offer when people reject sound and beneficial scientific advice. Politicization has undoubtedly contributed to hesitancy toward uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

#VaccineResistance Comes From Childhood Legacy of Mistrust.Encouraging the vaccine-resistant will take more than advertising, Duke-led study reports
today.duke.edu/2022/04/vaccin…

1/2 A survey of COVID-19 #vaccineacceptance across 23 countries in 2022. #Vaccinehesitancy remains substantial fueled in part by #misinformation. This study provides international COVID-19 vaccine acceptance data over 3 years and found that acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccination ⬇️

2/2 in 23 countries was 79.1% in 2022, an increase from 75.2% in 2021 (ref. 6). However, in our survey, 12% of those already vaccinated were hesitant or reported refusal to receive a booster dose. nature.com/articles/s4159…

1/2 Counterfactuals of effects of #vaccination and
#publichealthmeasures on #COVID19 cases in
#Canada: What could have happened. These observations show that without use of restrictive measures and without high levels of vaccination, Canada could have experienced substantially⬇️

2/2 higher numbers of infections and hospitalizations and almost a million deaths. PDF canada.ca/content/dam/ph…

1/4 The Role of #Denial in #VaccineSkeptics and “Anti-vax” Blame: A Psychodynamic Approach #antiivaxblame Most of these people presented no additional signs of delusional behavior or beliefs; this is not to say that their belief in a stronger protection is in itself delusional ⬇️

2/4 or the sign of a delusion. Correspondingly, they knew perfectly well where to find medical information about the disease; most were well aware that many had died from it. They had no problem acknowledging the severity of the disease, but felt they were protected from the⬇️

3/4 virus by their connection with a stronger force; they behaved as though carrying a charm-laden talisman. ... the blame of selfishness as an effect of the VS and AV fetishist risk denial on vaccinated people, and especially caregivers. frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

4/4 this research can help devise non-stigmatizing, blame-free responses at the institutional level. It could contribute to #psychodynamicapproaches to health policy and implementation which address how to respond to social anxiety on public health issues Walsh et al., 2016.

1/3 #Misinformation has been identified as a major contributor to events ranging from elections and referenda to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Belief in misinformation leads to poor judgements and decision-making, it also exerts a lingering influence on people’s ⬇️

2/3 reasoning after it has been corrected — an effect known as the #continuedinfluenceeffect. the #cognitivefactors, #socialfactors and #affectivefactors that lead people to form or endorse misinformed views, and the #psychologicalbarriers to knowledge revision ⬇️

3/ #illusorytrutheffect Effectiveness of both preemptive #prebunking’ reactive #debunking’
The psychological drivers of misinformation belief and its resistance to correction
nature.com/articles/s4415…

1/2 Susceptibility - One particularly prominent finding that helps explain why people are susceptible to misinformation is known as the #illusorytrutheffect: repeated claims are more likely be judged as true than non-repeated (or novel) claims. The inattention ⬇️

2/2 or #classicalreasoning argues the context of social media simply distracts people from making news-sharing decisions that are based on a preference for accuracy. #politicallymotivatedreasoning posits reasoning process with a pre-determined goal so individuals interpret ⬇️

new (mis)information in service of reaching the goal. The motivated account therefore argues the types of commitments people have to their affinity groups is what leads them to selectively endorse media content reinforcing deeply held political, religious, or social identities⬇️

... the types of commitments that people have to their affinity groups is what leads them to selectively endorse media content that reinforces deeply held political, religious, or social identities. For example, a #fakenews story could be viewed as much more plausible when ⬇️

it happens to offer positive information about someone’s political group, or equally when it offers negative information about a political opponent. The #motivatednumeracy account suggests more reflective and analytical System 2 reasoning abilities do not help people make ⬇️

more accurate assessments but in fact are frequently hijacked in service of #identitybasedreasoning.
Misinformation: susceptibility, spread, and interventions to immunize the public
nature.com/articles/s4159…

USC study reveals the key reason why fake news spreads on social media news.usc.edu/204782/usc-stu… USC-led study of more than 2,400 Facebook users suggests that platforms — more than individual users — have a larger role to play in stopping the spread of #misinformation online. ⬇️

Just 15% of the most habitual news sharers in the research were responsible for spreading about 30% to 40% of the #fakenews. #Socialmedia encourages users to share frequently, sensational, eye-catching information, likely to attract attention. #rewardbasedlearningsystems ⬇️

news.usc.edu/204782/usc-stu… [Misinformation is] really a function of the structure of the social media sites themselves.
Wendy Wood, USC expert on habits

#Sharingmisinformation is #habitual, not just lazy or biased. Once users form sharing habits, they respond automatically to recurring cues withing the site & are insensitive to whether the news is false or conflicts with their political beliefs. pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

In sum, strongly habitual sharers showed less partisan bias in their sharing choices than less habitual sharers. Even when rating the political orientation of headlines before sharing, habitual sharers were less discriminating in the politics of what they shared.