Beliefs in Misinformation About COVID-19 and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Are Linked: Evidence From a Nationally Representative Survey Study.

IF 3.5 Q1 HEALTH CARE SCIENCES & SERVICES
JMIR infodemiology Pub Date : 2025-03-10 DOI:10.2196/62913
Dominika Grygarová, Marek Havlík, Petr Adámek, Jiří Horáček, Veronika Juríčková, Jaroslav Hlinka, Ladislav Kesner
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Detrimental effects of misinformation were observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Presently, amid Russia's military aggression in Ukraine, another wave of misinformation is spreading on the web and impacting our daily lives, with many citizens and politicians embracing Russian propaganda narratives. Despite the lack of an objective connection between these 2 societal issues, anecdotal observations suggest that supporters of misinformation regarding COVID-19 (BM-C) have also adopted misinformation about the war in Ukraine (BM-U) while sharing similar media use patterns and political attitudes.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a link between respondents' endorsement of the 2 sets of misinformation narratives, and whether some of the selected factors (media use, political trust, vaccine hesitancy, and belief rigidity) are associated with both BM-C and BM-U.

Methods: We conducted a survey on a nationally representative sample of 1623 individuals in the Czech Republic. Spearman correlation analysis was performed to identify the relationship between BM-C and BM-U. In addition, multiple linear regression was used to determine associations between the examined factors and both sets of misinformation.

Results: We discovered that BM-C and BM-U were moderately correlated (Spearman ρ=0.57; P<.001). Furthermore, increased trust in Russia and decreased trust in the local government, public media, and Western allies of the Czech Republic predicted both BM-C and BM-U. Media use indicating frustration with and avoidance of public or mainstream media, consumption of alternative information sources, and participation in web-based discussions indicative of epistemic bubbles predicted beliefs in misinformation narratives. COVID-19 vaccine refusal predicted only BM-C but not BM-U. However, vaccine refusers were overrepresented in the BM-U supporters (64/161, 39.8%) and undecided (128/505, 25.3%) individuals. Both beliefs were associated with belief rigidity.

Conclusions: Our study provides empirical evidence that supporters of COVID-19 misinformation were susceptible to ideological misinformation aligning with Russian propaganda. Supporters of both sets of misinformation narratives were primarily linked by their shared trust or distrust in the same geopolitical actors and their distrust in the local government.

关于COVID-19和俄罗斯入侵乌克兰的错误信息的信念是相关的:来自全国代表性调查研究的证据。
背景:在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间,观察到错误信息的有害影响。目前,随着俄罗斯对乌克兰的军事侵略,另一波错误信息正在网络上传播,并影响着我们的日常生活,许多公民和政界人士接受了俄罗斯的宣传叙事。尽管这两个社会问题之间缺乏客观联系,但轶事观察表明,关于COVID-19的错误信息(BM-C)的支持者也采用了关于乌克兰战争的错误信息(BM-U),同时分享类似的媒体使用模式和政治态度。目的:本研究的目的是确定受访者对两组错误信息叙述的认可之间是否存在联系,以及某些选定的因素(媒体使用、政治信任、疫苗犹豫和信仰刚性)是否与BM-C和BM-U相关。方法:我们对捷克共和国1623人的全国代表性样本进行了调查。采用Spearman相关分析来确定脑机- c和脑机- u之间的关系。此外,多元线性回归用于确定被检查因素和两组错误信息之间的关联。结果:我们发现bmi - c与bmi - u呈中等相关性(Spearman ρ=0.57;结论:我们的研究提供了经验证据,证明COVID-19错误信息的支持者容易受到与俄罗斯宣传相一致的意识形态错误信息的影响。两组错误信息叙述的支持者主要是由于他们对同一地缘政治参与者的共同信任或不信任以及对当地政府的不信任而联系在一起的。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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CiteScore
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