Digital misinformation may lead to wrong health decisions, says study

An online cross-sectional survey involving antivaxxers, conspiracy theorists, and flat earthers reveals how these people are more likely to believe in false causes of cancer, indicating an association between digital misinformation and consequent erroneous health decisions.

“We evaluated the patterns of beliefs about cancer among people who believed in conspiracies, rejected the COVID-19 vaccine, or preferred alternative medicine,” the researchers said. “We observed that the participants who belonged to these groups were more likely to endorse mythical causes of cancer than were their counterparts but were less likely to endorse the actual causes of cancer.”

A total of 1,494 participants responded to the survey, of which 209 were unvaccinated against COVID-19, 112 preferred alternative rather than conventional medicine, and 62 reported flat earth or reptilian beliefs. The researchers obtained data from ForoCoches (a well-known Spanish forum) and other platforms, including Reddit (English), 4Chan (English), HispaChan (Spanish), and a Spanish language website for cancer prevention (mejorsincancer.org) from January to March 2022.

Finally, cancer beliefs were evaluated using validated tools such as the Cancer Awareness Measure (CAM) and Cancer Awareness Measure Mythical Causes Scale (CAM-MYCS).

There was greater awareness of the actual than mythical causes of cancer (median CAM score, 63.6 percent vs 41.7 percent). Among the mythical causes of cancer, the most common were eating food containing additives or sweeteners, feeling stressed, and eating genetically modified food. [BMJ 2022;379:e072561]

Awareness of the actual and mythical causes of cancer were lower among the unvaccinated, alternative medicine, and conspiracy groups than among their counterparts. Specifically, a median of 54.5 percent of the actual causes was accurately identified in each of the unvaccinated, alternative medicine, and conspiracy groups compared to 63.6 percent in each of the three corresponding counterparts (p=0.13, p=0.04, and p=0.003, respectively).

In terms of mythical causes, medians of 25.0 percent, 16.7 percent, and 16.7 percent were accurately identified in the unvaccinated, alternative medicine, and conspiracy groups, respectively, while a median of 41.7 percent was identified in each of the three corresponding counterparts (p<0.001 in adjusted models for all comparisons).

‘Everything causes cancer’

Of note, 673 (45.0 percent) participants believed the statement “It seems like everything causes cancer.” Differences were not significant among the unvaccinated (44.0 percent), conspiracy (41.9 percent), or alternative medicine groups (35.7 percent) compared with their counterparts (45.2 percent, 45.7 percent, and 45.8 percent, respectively).

“Almost half of the participants agreed that ‘It seems like everything causes cancer’, which highlights the difficulty that society encounters in differentiating actual and mythical causes owing to mass information,” the researchers said.

“People who believed in conspiracies, rejected the COVID-19 vaccine, or preferred alternative medicine were more likely to endorse the mythical causes of cancer than their counterparts but were less likely to endorse the actual causes of cancer,” they added.

These results are consistent with the cognitive paradox seen among people who reject COVID-19 vaccine. These individuals usually believe less in a wide range of facts and more in fake statements than do vaccine supporters. [Pers Individ Dif 2022;189:111522]

“Cultivating oriented medical education and scientific literacy, improving online ranking algorithms, building trust, and using effective health communication and social marketing campaigns may be possible ways to tackle this complex public health threat,” the researchers said.