The Role of Conspiracy Theories in the Spread of COVID-19 across the United States.
COVID-19
conspiracy theory
human mobility
mediation analysis
official information
personal protection
Journal
International journal of environmental research and public health
ISSN: 1660-4601
Titre abrégé: Int J Environ Res Public Health
Pays: Switzerland
ID NLM: 101238455
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
06 04 2021
06 04 2021
Historique:
received:
18
02
2021
revised:
31
03
2021
accepted:
01
04
2021
entrez:
30
4
2021
pubmed:
1
5
2021
medline:
6
5
2021
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) inspires various conspiracy theories, which could divert public attention, alter human behaviors, and consequently affect the spread of the pandemic. Here we estimate the relation of the online attention on COVID-19-related conspiracy theories to human mobility, as well as to the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases, during 14 March 2020 to 28 August 2020. We observe that the online attention to COVID-19 conspiracy theories is significantly and negatively related to human mobility, but its negative impact is noticeably less than those of the attention to official information and personal protection measures. Since human mobility significantly promotes the spread of COVID-19, the attention to official information and personal protection measures lowers COVID-19 cases by 16.16% and 9.41%, respectively, while attention to conspiracy theories only reduces the COVID-19 cases by 6.65%. In addition, we find that in the states with higher online attention to COVID-19 conspiracy theories, the negative relation of the attention to conspiracy theories is much weaker than that in states where there is less concern about conspiracies. This study stresses the necessity of restricting the online transmission of unfounded conspiracy theories during a pandemic.
Identifiants
pubmed: 33917575
pii: ijerph18073843
doi: 10.3390/ijerph18073843
pmc: PMC8038760
pii:
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Subventions
Organisme : National Natural Science Foundation of China
ID : 71671180, 71901194, 71832013
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