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. 2020 Oct;42(5):586-615.
doi: 10.1177/1075547020959670.

Effects of COVID-19 Misinformation on Information Seeking, Avoidance, and Processing: A Multicountry Comparative Study

Hye Kyung Kim  1 , Jisoo Ahn  2 , Lucy Atkinson  3 , Lee Ann Kahlor  3
Affiliations

Effects of COVID-19 Misinformation on Information Seeking, Avoidance, and Processing: A Multicountry Comparative Study

Hye Kyung Kim et al. Sci Commun. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

We examined the implications of exposure to misinformation about COVID-19 in the United States, South Korea, and Singapore in the early stages of the global pandemic. The online survey results showed that misinformation exposure reduced information insufficiency, which subsequently led to greater information avoidance and heuristic processing, as well as less systematic processing of COVID-19 information. Indirect effects differ by country and were stronger in the U.S. sample than in the Singapore sample. This study highlights negative consequences of misinformation during a global pandemic and addresses possible cultural and situational differences in how people interpret and respond to misinformation.

Keywords: COVID-19; cross-country comparison; information seeking and processing; misinformation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Informational implications of misinformation on COVID-19.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Effects of misinformation on information seeking, avoidance, and processing by country. Note. US = United States; KR = South Korea; SG = Singapore.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Effects of information insufficiency on information seeking, avoidance, and processing by country. Note. US = United States; KR = South Korea; SG = Singapore.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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