False covid news stories can even fool healthcare professionals

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-03-11 06:00

International

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False news stories about covid-19 can have dangerous and even fatal consequences. German researchers tested students and healthcare professionals and found that they had similar success when distinguishing true and false covid-19 news stories. People who engaged in analytical thinking had higher success rates. The authors say that their study shows that individuals are vulnerable to false news information, regardless of their level of education and expertise.

Journal/
conference: PLOS (ONE)

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany

Funder: The financial support of Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation – 388911356) is gratefully acknowledged (receipt of the grant: Sven Grüner). We acknowledge the financial support within the funding programme Open Access Publishing by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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