To Fight Health Disinformation, Focus On Low Expertise

"Disinformation is false information spread intentionally, and it is particularly harmful for public health. We conducted three preregistered experiments (N = 1,568) investigating how to discredit dubious health sources and disinformation attributed to them. Experiments 1 and 2 used cancer information and recruited representative U.S. samples. Participants read a vignette about a seemingly reputable source and rated their credibility. Participants were randomly assigned to a control condition or interventions that (a) corrected the source’s disinformation, (b) highlighted the source’s low expertise, or (c) corrected disinformation and highlighted low expertise (Experiment 2). Next, participants rated their belief in the source’s disinformation claims and rerated their credibility. We found that highlighting low expertise was equivalent to (or more effective than) other interventions for reducing belief in disinformation. Highlighting low expertise was also more effective than correcting disinformation for reducing source credibility, although combining it with correcting disinformation outperformed low expertise alone (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 extended this paradigm to vaccine information in vaccinated and unvaccinated subgroups. A conflict-of-interest intervention and 1-week retention interval were also added. Highlighting low expertise was the most effective intervention in both vaccinated and unvaccinated participants for reducing belief in disinformation and source credibility. It was also the only condition where belief change was sustained over 1 week, but only in the vaccinated subgroup. In sum, *highlighting a source’s lack of expertise is a promising option for fact-checkers and health practitioners to reduce belief in disinformation and perceived credibility."

https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2025-19881-005.html

*The US Republican Party is a major source of disinformation on MANY topics. (https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/11/trump-disinformation-immigrants-storm-00183378)

A NPR Science Friday "Twofer"

Click on the link below for two interesting discussions in this week's podcast from NPR Science Friday:

How Health Misinformation Spreads | A Play About Ben Franklin And His Son

Psychological Science: A Key To Understanding And Combating Health Misinformation

"There is widespread concern that misinformation poses dangerous risks to health, well-being, and civic life. Despite a growing body of research on the topic, significant questions remain about (a) psychological factors that render people susceptible to misinformation, (b) the extent to which it affects real-world behavior, (c) how it spreads online and offline, and (d) intervention strategies that counter and correct it effectively. This report reviews the best available psychological science research to reach a consensus on each of these crucial questions, particularly as they pertain to health-related misinformation. In addition, the report offers eight specific recommendations for scientists, policymakers, and health professionals who seek to recognize and respond to misinformation in health care and beyond."

MAIN POINTS:

• RECOMMENDATION 1 Avoid repeating misinformation without including a correction.
• RECOMMENDATION 2 Collaborate with social media companies to understand and reduce the spread of harmful misinformation.
• RECOMMENDATION 3 Use misinformation correction strategies with tools already proven to promote healthy behaviors
• RECOMMENDATION 4 Leverage trusted sources to counter misinformation and provide accurate health information.
• RECOMMENDATION 5 Debunk misinformation often and repeatedly using evidence-based methods.
• RECOMMENDATION 6 Prebunk misinformation to inoculate susceptible audiences by building skills and resilience from an early age.
• RECOMMENDATION 7 Demand data access and transparency from social media companies for scientific research on misinformation
• RECOMMENDATION 8 Fund basic and translational research into the psychology of health misinformation, including effective ways to counter it. 

Click on the link below for the full 44-page American Psychological Association Consensus Statement:

Using Psychological Science to Understand and Fight Health Misinformation

Confronting Health Misinformation

4/14/2026: "RAW MILK > IT'S NOT WORTH THE HEALTH RISK."

CLICK HERE

"I am urging all Americans to help slow the spread of health misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Health misinformation is a serious threat to public health. It can cause confusion, sow mistrust, harm people’s health, and undermine public health efforts. Limiting the spread of health misinformation is a moral and civic imperative that will require a whole-of-society effort."

Below is a link to a recent publication from the US. Surgeon General regarding how to combat health misinformation. 

The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on Building a Healthy Information Environment