Injecting Disinfectants to Kill the Virus: Media Literacy, Information Gathering Sources, and the Moderating Role of Political Ideology on Misperceptions about COVID-19

ABSTRACT

Fake information about COVID-19 continues to circulate widely, including false causes and cures. The current study examined the (a) relationship between information gathering sources and misperceptions; (b) association between literacy variables and misperceptions; and (c) the moderating role of political ideology on these relationships. Conservative ideology, younger age, conservative media use, information gathering from social media, and information gathering from Donald Trump were positively associated with COVID-19 misperceptions. Meanwhile, information gathering from local media, CDC, and scientists was negatively related to COVID-19 misperceptions. Interaction models showed critical conditional patterns with political ideology. For example, liberals with higher media literacy for content held lower COVID-19 misperceptions, but this did not hold true for conservatives. The results revealed a need to facilitate more exposure to alternative viewpoints to counteract the echo chamber of misinformation that conservatives appear to trust regardless of self-reported media literacy.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2022.2045324.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Porismita Borah

Porismita Borah (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, Madison) is an Associate Professor at the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication and a graduate faculty in the Prevention Science program at the Washington State University. She is a member of the Democracy Research Unit, at the University of Salamanca, Spain. Her research focuses on the interplay of emerging technology, politics, and health. Twitter: @borah; Web: http://porismitaborah.com/

Erica Austin

Erica Austin (Ph.D., Stanford University) is a professor and the director of the Edward R. Murrow Center for Media and Health Promotion Research in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. Her scholarship and outreach focus on how media literacy and parent-child communication about media contribute to decision making about health and civic affairs among youth and adults. The American Academy of Pediatrics has cited her research in multiple policy statements about the health effects of the media on children and adolescents.

Yan Su

Yan Su (Ph.D. Washington State University) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Peking University. Dr. Su’s research orbits emerging communication technology in the context of politics and science.