‘Negativity bias' could make depressed people more vulnerable to misinformation

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-01-22 03:00

International

What does this mean?

Jump to: MultimediaAttachmentsExpert Reaction

A survey of over 15,000 Americans found that those experiencing symptoms of depression were more likely to believe and endorse vaccine-related misinformation. Follow-up questionnaires found that people who reported moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms in the first survey were more likely to have more misinformed beliefs after one and two months. Though it’s difficult to determine whether conspiratorial beliefs make people more depressed or vice versa, researchers cite evidence that negativity can make people more susceptible to media that invokes anger and disgust, which is characteristic of much COVID-19 misinformation.