Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov 17;38(49):7799-7805.
doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.10.018. Epub 2020 Oct 22.

The sources and correlates of exposure to vaccine-related (mis)information online

Andrew M Guess  1 , Brendan Nyhan  2 , Zachary O'Keeffe  3 , Jason Reifler  4
Affiliations

The sources and correlates of exposure to vaccine-related (mis)information online

Andrew M Guess et al. Vaccine. .

Abstract

Objectives: To assess the quantity and type of vaccine-related information Americans consume online and its relationship to social media use and attitudes toward vaccines.

Methods: Analysis of individual-level web browsing data linked with survey responses from representative samples of Americans collected between October 2016 and February 2019.

Results: We estimate that approximately 84% of Americans visit a vaccine-related webpage each year. Encounters with vaccine-skeptical content are less frequent; they make up only 7.5% of vaccine-related pageviews and are encountered by only 18.5% of people annually. However, these pages are more likely to be published by untrustworthy sources. Moreover, skeptical content exposure is more common among people with less favorable vaccine attitudes. Finally, usage of online intermediaries is frequently linked to vaccine-related information exposure. Google use is differentially associated with subsequent exposure to non-skeptical content, whereas exposure to vaccine-skeptical webpages is associated with usage of webmail and, to a lesser extent, Facebook.

Conclusions: Online exposure to vaccine-skeptical content is relatively rare, but vigilance is required given the potential for exposure among vulnerable audiences.

Keywords: Information; Online; Search; Social media; Vaccine hesitancy; Vaccine skepticism.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Relationship between vaccine attitudes and online information exposure. Means incorporating survey weights with 95% confidence intervals. Vaccine attitudes measured on a 5-point scale and split into terciles. Online information exposure measured as binary indicators for visits to at least one webpage (left) and number of webpage visits (right). Webpage information content coded for vaccine skepticism among pages with 3 or more mentions of vaccine-related keywords (see Online Appendix A for details on coding protocol).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Frequency of pre- and post-visit exposure to social media, search, and email. Share of exposure to pages coded as vaccine-skeptical, not vaccine-skeptical, or not vaccine-related that followed (left panel) or preceded (right panel) visits to Facebook, Google, or webmail. Webpage information content coded for vaccine skepticism among pages with 3 or more mentions of vaccine-related keywords (see Online Appendix A for details on coding protocol). Sites were identified as having been visited immediately prior to or after exposure if they were among the three visits before or after a given URL and if they appeared within 30 s of webpage exposure.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bean Sandra J. Emerging and continuing trends in vaccine opposition website content. Vaccine. 2011;29(10):1874–1880. - PubMed
    1. Betsch Cornelia, Renkewitz Frank, Betsch Tilmann, Ulshöfer Corina. The influence of vaccine-critical websites on perceiving vaccination risks. J Health Psychol. 2010;15(3):446–455. - PubMed
    1. Betsch Cornelia, Brewer Noel T., Brocard Pauline, Davies Patrick, Gaissmaier Wolfgang, Haase Niels, et al. Opportunities and challenges of Web 2.0 for vaccination decisions. Vaccine. 2012;30(25):3727–3733. - PubMed
    1. Briones Rowena, Nan Xiaoli, Madden Kelly, Waks Leah. When vaccines go viral: an analysis of HPV vaccine coverage on YouTube. Health Commun. 2012;27(5):478–485. - PubMed
    1. Broderick, Ryan. Here’s How One Of Facebook’s Biggest Anti-Vax Communities Built Its Massive Network. BuzzFeed News;2019, February 15, 2019. Downloaded January 21, 2020 from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/facebook-anti-vaccina....

Publication types