Vaccine misinformation can be dispelled by conversation

The study authors are Man-pui Sally Chan and Dolores Albarracín of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson of The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.“What we find,” says Albarracín, “is that some online discussions appear to have a negative influence on people’s attitudes and vaccine behavior — which makes the people exposed to them less likely to get a flu shot.”This is particularly concerning due to the potential arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine. They questioned each individual about their opinion of vaccines, their history of receiving them, and whether they discussed vaccination with anyone else.Ten topics were identified from the tweet analysis, with two strongly associated with local anti-vaccine attitudes and behaviors among survey respondents who had not discussed vaccines with others.The study authors named the tweet topics “Vaccine Fraud and Children” and “Vaccine Science Matters.”A third topic, “Big Pharma,” was also associated with negative vaccine attitudes and behaviors.The researchers caution that although they found “strong to very strong associations” between tweets and attitudes and behaviors relating to vaccines, associations do not prove causality, and further experiments are needed.Despite this, the research suggests a simple but effective way to resist online misinformation about vaccines.Lead author Chan adds, “Combating the current ‘infodemic’ online is critical, but so is getting communities to talk about vaccines in daily life.”“We should be inviting families and communities to have open discussions on these issues,” says Albarracín.