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Partisan public health: how does political ideology influence support for COVID-19 related misinformation?

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  • Nicholas Francis Havey

    (University of California, Los Angeles)

Abstract

This study analyzes over 4000 tweets related to six misinformation topics about the COVID-19 pandemic: the use of hydroxychloroquine as treatment, the use of bleach as a preventative measure, Bill Gates intentionally causing the virus, the Chinese Communist Party intentionally causing the virus, and the Deep State causing the virus to ruin the economy and threaten President Trump’s reelection chances. Across 5 of 6 topics (excluding bleach), conservatives dominate the discourse on Twitter. Conservatives are also more likely than their liberal peers to believe in and push conspiracy theories that the Chinese Communist Party, Bill Gates, and the Deep State are working in conjunction to infect the population and enact a surveillance state. Pandemic related misinformation has previously been associated with decreased adherence to public health recommendations and adverse health effects and evidence from the current pandemic indicates that adherence to public health recommendations is starkly partisan. This study suggests that the political and informational polarization further facilitated by social media platforms such as Twitter may have dire consequences for public health.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Francis Havey, 2020. "Partisan public health: how does political ideology influence support for COVID-19 related misinformation?," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 319-342, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jcsosc:v:3:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s42001-020-00089-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s42001-020-00089-2
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    Cited by:

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    2. Emilio Ferrara & Stefano Cresci & Luca Luceri, 2020. "Misinformation, manipulation, and abuse on social media in the era of COVID-19," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 271-277, November.
    3. van Mulukom, Valerie & Pummerer, Lotte J. & Alper, Sinan & Bai, Hui & Čavojová, Vladimíra & Farias, Jessica & Kay, Cameron S. & Lazarevic, Ljiljana B. & Lobato, Emilio J.C. & Marinthe, Gaëlle & Pavela, 2022. "Antecedents and consequences of COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 301(C).
    4. Federica Maria Magarini & Margherita Pinelli & Arianna Sinisi & Silvia Ferrari & Giovanna Laura De Fazio & Gian Maria Galeazzi, 2021. "Irrational Beliefs about COVID-19: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-21, September.
    5. Waseem Ahmad & Bang Wang & Philecia Martin & Minghua Xu & Han Xu, 2023. "Enhanced sentiment analysis regarding COVID-19 news from global channels," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 19-57, April.
    6. Laura Colautti & Alice Cancer & Sara Magenes & Alessandro Antonietti & Paola Iannello, 2022. "Risk-Perception Change Associated with COVID-19 Vaccine’s Side Effects: The Role of Individual Differences," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-14, January.
    7. Michael Becher & Daniel Stegmueller & Sylvain Brouard & Eric Kerrouche, 2021. "Ideology and compliance with health guidelines during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A comparative perspective," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(5), pages 2106-2123, September.
    8. Anna Ruelens, 2022. "Analyzing user-generated content using natural language processing: a case study of public satisfaction with healthcare systems," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 731-749, May.
    9. Tung, Hans H. & Chang, Teng-Jen & Lin, Ming-Jen, 2022. "Political ideology predicts preventative behaviors and infections amid COVID-19 in democracies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    10. Block, Ray & Burnham, Michael & Kahn, Kayla & Peng, Rachel & Seeman, Jeremy & Seto, Christopher, 2022. "Perceived risk, political polarization, and the willingness to follow COVID-19 mitigation guidelines," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    11. Porismita Borah & Kyle Lorenzano & Anastasia Vishnevskaya & Erica Austin, 2022. "Conservative Media Use and COVID-19 Related Behavior: The Moderating Role of Media Literacy Variables," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-13, June.

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