The COVID-19 pandemic has generated severe social, economic, and political implications and challenges in addition to unprecedented health threats and harm. A typical phenomenon associated with ...emergencies and crises is the spreading of rumours. Social networks have become a popular arena for spreading rumours in various contexts, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study analysed the circumstances under which people might spread such rumours and the psychological mechanism behind this behaviour. We examined potential factors that might influence the spreading of pandemic-related online rumours (behavioural component): the participants' thoughts and beliefs about the rumour (cognitive component), users' trust in the information to which they are exposed by the media (trust component), and the emotional response to information regarding the epidemic resulting from media exposure (emotional component). Using a survey of individuals who were exposed to COVID-19 rumours, we could test the effects of our independent variables on the willingness to spread the rumours. Research findings indicate that there is a correlation between the cognitive component and the behavioural component. We also identified a mediated route of influence through the trust component. Contrary to our hypothesis, we didn't find that the emotional component was a mediator between the cognitive and behavioural components.
Abstract
Abstract
People often attribute rumours to an individual in a knowledgeable position two steps removed from them (
a credible friend of a friend
), such as ‘my friend's father, who's a cop, ...told me about a serial killer in town’. Little is known about the influence of such attributions on rumour propagation, or how they are maintained when the rumour is transmitted. In four studies (
N =
1824) participants exposed to a rumour and asked to transmit it overwhelmingly attributed it either to a credible friend of a friend, or to a generic friend (e.g. ‘a friend told me about a serial killer in town’). In both cases, participants engaged in
source shortening
: e.g. when told by a friend that ‘a friend told me …’ they shared the rumour as coming from ‘a friend’ instead of ‘a friend of friend’. Source shortening and reliance on credible sources boosted rumour propagation by increasing the rumours’ perceived plausibility and participants’ willingness to share them. Models show that, in linear transmission chains, the generic friend attribution dominates, but that allowing each individual to be exposed to the rumour from several sources enables the maintenance of the credible friend of a friend attribution.
Maternal immunization is key to protecting maternal and newborn health. We interviewed pregnant women in Brazil to identify barriers to and enablers of maternal immunization in the country. In-depth ...interviews and focus groups were conducted in Brazil with 60 pregnant women from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro at different stages of their pregnancies. Participants were encouraged to discuss views on safety, efficacy and importance of maternal vaccines, access to vaccines, interactions with healthcare professionals, and sources of information on vaccine-related matters. There was generally a positive regard for maternal immunization among the interviewed women, many of whom associated vaccination with protection of their unborn child. The interviewees cited several reasons for adherence to immunization guidelines, including recommendations from healthcare professionals, targeted communication campaigns, and active use of a vaccination card or booklet. There were no reported barriers for maternal vaccines. Some women using private healthcare services reported not having been asked about vaccines at check-ups, which could adversely affect vaccination rates. A rumour that vaccines caused microcephaly which emerged during the Zika outbreak was the most commonly cited reason for choosing not to vaccinate among the interviewees. This study identified important vaccine confidence builders. Many of the interviewees critically reflected upon information received, placing themselves as the decision makers over their health choices. A prominent barrier to maternal immunization was a rumour linking vaccines to microcephaly. To the best of our knowledge, this has not been previously reported in the literature and requires further investigation into the extent of this issue and how it can be mitigated.
This paper investigates the dynamics of communication on social media, related to the spread of rumours, by studying the impact of micro-level agent interactions within social media discussions, on ...macro-level outcomes related to the diffusion of rumours. An agent-based framework is used to model social media discussions, modularly describing heterogeneous agents with differentiating characteristics, their interaction dynamics, rumour state transitions, and the evolution of networks on which these agents interact. Studying the effect of population, agent, interaction, and network characteristics, we find that some unobservable characteristics, like the initial distribution of opinions, play a significant role in rumour outcomes, particularly the homogeneity and polarisation of opinions. We report our findings on the mechanism and interactions and suggest heuristics for managers to counter the spread of unfavourable rumours.
Im frühen und hohen Mittelalter berichten die Quellen in auffälliger Häufigkeit von dem Gerücht, ein Herrscher sei verstorben. Auf diese unverbürgte Nachricht hin seien demnach Revolten ausgebrochen, ...die erst durch das Erscheinen des vermeintlich Toten alsbald in sich zusammengebrochen seien. Im vergleichenden Blick auf dieses wiederkehrende Motiv analysiert der Verfasser diese Gerüchte in ihrer narratologischen Funktion. So sind es meist dem vermeintlich verstorbenen Herrscher nahestehende Autoren, die diese Gerüchte in ihrer Erzählung als Ursache dafür anführen, dass überhaupt Revolten gegen den Herrscher ausbrechen konnten. Regelmäßig werden deswegen übelmeinende Konkurrenten des Herrschers zu böswilligen Erfindern des Gerüchts stilisiert. Ohne deren Intrigen wäre, so der Tenor, ein Aufstand gegen den Herrscher undenkbar gewesen. Die Einzelfallprüfung sowie generelle Überlegungen zur Kommunikation im frühen und hohen Mittelalter machen dagegen wahrscheinlich, dass die Gerüchte vom Tod eines Herrschers oft nachträgliche Erfindungen der Autoren sind, um in ihrer Erzählung eine Erklärung für den unerklärbaren Aufstand gegen einen Herrscher anzubieten.
In the Early Middle and Central Middle Ages rumours of a sovereign's death are frequently reported in historical sources. Due to this unauthenticated message, uprisings were carried out until the alleged dead suddenly reappeared. By taking a comparative look at this recurrent motif, the author of this paper analyses these rumours and their narrative function. In most cases, authors related to a presumed dead sovereign report on these rumors as the only reason for the upcoming of a revolt. Regularly, vexatious rivals were made the rumour's malicious creator. According to the tenor, a revolt would have been inconceivable without their machination. Case-by-case examination as well as general considerations of communication in the Early Middle and Central Middle Ages reveal that authors frequently invented the sovereign's death ex post in order to explain the inexplicable rebellion against him.
This article locates the symbolic construction of "corrupted purity"-as a key assertion in Romanian parents' HPV vaccination refusal narratives-within a multiplicity of entangled rumors concerning ...reproduction and the state. Romania's unsuccessful HPV vaccination campaign is not unique. However, the shifting discourses around purity and corruption-through which some parents conveyed anxieties about their daughters being targeted for the vaccine-place a particular twist on the Romanian case of resisting the HPV vaccination. Parental discourses took the form of clusters of rumors about state medicine's failure to provide adequate reproductive health care, additive-laden foods, and exposure to radioactive contamination. In these rumors, corruption becomes literally embodied, through ingestion, consumption, contact, or inoculation. Parental discourses about what is being injected into their daughters' pristine bodies express their uncertainty around navigating the unsettled post-socialist medical landscape.
This article concentrates on ideals of total devotion in Latin late antique Lives of secret saints. It argues that total devotion is narrativised according to a standardised plot structure or ...'masterplot'. The plot starts with the saints' performance of total devotion in religious competition, which increases their fame and emotional attraction among the followers. Imitating the example of earlier ascetics, the saints withdraw in isolation to avoid the followers' attention, but to no avail: the more they hide, the more they become known through the spreading of rumours. The saints' subsequent disclosure intensifies their emotional attraction, and results in the people's demonstration of total devotion. In a final step, the audience of the hagiographical tales is invited to follow the saints' example. Laying bare the recurring plot elements, the article highlights the nexus of ascetic withdrawal, secrecy, fame, emotions, storytelling, and imitation in the constitution of total devotion.
Due to discrimination and media literacy, middle-aged and elderly individuals have been easily reduced to marginalized groups in the identification of rumours during a public health crisis and can ...easily spread rumours repeatedly, which has a negative impact on pandemic prevention and social psychology. To further clarify the factors influencing their behaviours, this study used a questionnaire to survey a sample of 556 individuals in China and used multiple linear regression and analysis of variance to explore influencing factors during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We found that, first, in the COVID-19 pandemic, middle-aged and elderly adults' willingness to re-spread rumours is positively related to their degree of believing rumours and to personal anxiety and is negatively related to their rumour-discrimination ability and to their perception of serious consequences to rumour spreading. Second, the degree of believing rumours plays an intermediary role in the willingness to re-spread rumours. It plays a partial mediating role in the path of anxiety's influence on behaviour, suggesting that an anxious person will spread a rumour even if he or she does not have a strong belief in the rumour. Third, interpersonal communication has a greater credibility and a greater willingness to re-spread than does mass communication. This suggests the importance of increasing public knowledge expertise and of reducing public panic. This also has important implications for the future design of public health policies.
Abstract
Background
In many places, health workers at the sub-national level are on the frontlines of disseminating information about coronavirus (COVID-19) to communities. To ensure communities are ...receiving timely and accurate information, it is vital health workers are kept abreast of the most recent recommendations, and guidance.
Methods
An electronic survey was implemented to provide insights about the dissemination and utilisation of information and evidence related to the COVID-19 pandemic by health workers engaged at sub-national levels of the Ugandan health system. The aim of this survey was to provide insights about the dissemination and utilisation of information and evidence related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic by individuals engaged at sub-national levels of the health system.
Results
Mass media and public health campaigns and outreach activities were deemed the most suitable means to reach communities with COVID-19 information. Given the reported disruption to public outreach campaigns, this is a particularly important consideration for the provision of information to communities. All materials should be adapted to the local context. The need for information on homecare of COVID-19 patients was highlighted, along with the need for updated local statistics as to COVID-19 cases to be relayed for health workers at sub-national levels.
Conclusions
Understanding the sources of information used by health workers can facilitate the transfer of relevant and timely information, which in turn increases the use of such information by the Ugandan population. It is vital that these issues are continued to be monitored, and communication modes and content are actively responsive to the time- and place-specific needs of health workers and community members.
We model the decisions of young individuals to stay in school or drop out and engage in criminal activities. We build on the literature on human capital and crime engagement and use the framework of ...Banerjee (1993) that assumes that the information needed to engage in crime arrives in the form of a rumour and that individuals update their beliefs about the profitability of crime relative to education. These assumptions allow us to study the effect of social interactions on crime. In our model, we investigate informational spillovers from the actions of talented students to less talented students. We show that policies that decrease the cost of education for talented students may increase the vulnerability of less talented students to crime. The effect is exacerbated when students do not fully understand the underlying learning dynamics.
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