Examining the impact of sharing COVID-19 misinformation online on mental health
Abstract Misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic proliferated widely on social media platforms during the course of the health crisis. Experts have speculated that consuming misinformation online can potentially worsen the mental health of individuals, by causing heightened anxiety, stress, and e...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2022-05-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11488-y |
| _version_ | 1811256770417393664 |
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| author | Gaurav Verma Ankur Bhardwaj Talayeh Aledavood Munmun De Choudhury Srijan Kumar |
| author_facet | Gaurav Verma Ankur Bhardwaj Talayeh Aledavood Munmun De Choudhury Srijan Kumar |
| author_sort | Gaurav Verma |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic proliferated widely on social media platforms during the course of the health crisis. Experts have speculated that consuming misinformation online can potentially worsen the mental health of individuals, by causing heightened anxiety, stress, and even suicidal ideation. The present study aims to quantify the causal relationship between sharing misinformation, a strong indicator of consuming misinformation, and experiencing exacerbated anxiety. We conduct a large-scale observational study spanning over 80 million Twitter posts made by 76,985 Twitter users during an 18.5 month period. The results from this study demonstrate that users who shared COVID-19 misinformation experienced approximately two times additional increase in anxiety when compared to similar users who did not share misinformation. Socio-demographic analysis reveals that women, racial minorities, and individuals with lower levels of education in the United States experienced a disproportionately higher increase in anxiety when compared to the other users. These findings shed light on the mental health costs of consuming online misinformation. The work bears practical implications for social media platforms in curbing the adverse psychological impacts of misinformation, while also upholding the ethos of an online public sphere. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T17:45:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8755a4971ab249b59a16037907ccea29 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T17:45:19Z |
| publishDate | 2022-05-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-8755a4971ab249b59a16037907ccea292022-12-22T03:22:40ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222022-05-011211910.1038/s41598-022-11488-yExamining the impact of sharing COVID-19 misinformation online on mental healthGaurav Verma0Ankur Bhardwaj1Talayeh Aledavood2Munmun De Choudhury3Srijan Kumar4School of Computational Science and Engineering, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of TechnologySchool of Computational Science and Engineering, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of TechnologyDepartment of Computer Science, Aalto UniversitySchool of Interactive Computing, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of TechnologySchool of Computational Science and Engineering, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of TechnologyAbstract Misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic proliferated widely on social media platforms during the course of the health crisis. Experts have speculated that consuming misinformation online can potentially worsen the mental health of individuals, by causing heightened anxiety, stress, and even suicidal ideation. The present study aims to quantify the causal relationship between sharing misinformation, a strong indicator of consuming misinformation, and experiencing exacerbated anxiety. We conduct a large-scale observational study spanning over 80 million Twitter posts made by 76,985 Twitter users during an 18.5 month period. The results from this study demonstrate that users who shared COVID-19 misinformation experienced approximately two times additional increase in anxiety when compared to similar users who did not share misinformation. Socio-demographic analysis reveals that women, racial minorities, and individuals with lower levels of education in the United States experienced a disproportionately higher increase in anxiety when compared to the other users. These findings shed light on the mental health costs of consuming online misinformation. The work bears practical implications for social media platforms in curbing the adverse psychological impacts of misinformation, while also upholding the ethos of an online public sphere.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11488-y |
| spellingShingle | Gaurav Verma Ankur Bhardwaj Talayeh Aledavood Munmun De Choudhury Srijan Kumar Examining the impact of sharing COVID-19 misinformation online on mental health Scientific Reports |
| title | Examining the impact of sharing COVID-19 misinformation online on mental health |
| title_full | Examining the impact of sharing COVID-19 misinformation online on mental health |
| title_fullStr | Examining the impact of sharing COVID-19 misinformation online on mental health |
| title_full_unstemmed | Examining the impact of sharing COVID-19 misinformation online on mental health |
| title_short | Examining the impact of sharing COVID-19 misinformation online on mental health |
| title_sort | examining the impact of sharing covid 19 misinformation online on mental health |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11488-y |
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