Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jul 27, 2021
Date Accepted: Sep 26, 2021
Date Submitted to PubMed: Sep 28, 2021
Intervening on trust in science to reduce belief in COVID-19 misinformation and increase COVID-19 preventive behavioral intentions: randomized controlled trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Trust in science meaningfully contributes to our understanding of people’s belief in misinformation and their intentions to take actions to prevent COVID-19. However, no experimental research has sought to intervene on this variable to develop a scalable response to the COVID-19 infodemic.
Objective:
Our study examined whether brief exposure to an infographic about the scientific process might increase trust in science and thereby affect belief in misinformation and intention to take preventive actions for COVID-19.
Methods:
This two-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled trial aimed to recruit a US representative sample of 1000 adults by age, race/ethnicity, and gender using the Prolific platform. Participants were randomly assigned to view either an intervention infographic about the scientific process or a control infographic. The intervention infographic was designed through a separate pilot study. Primary outcomes were trust in science, COVID-19 narrative belief profile, and COVID-19 preventive behavioral intentions. Twelve covariates were also collected and incorporated into all analyses. All outcomes were collected using web-based assessment.
Results:
From January 22 to 24, 2021, 1017 participants completed the study. The intervention slightly improved trust in science (difference-in-difference 0.03, SE=0.01, t=2.16, p=.031). No direct intervention effect was observed on belief profile membership, but there was some evidence of an indirect intervention effect mediated by trust in science (AOR=1.06, SE=0.03, 95%CI 1.00-1.12, z=2.01, p=.045) on membership in the ‘scientific’ profile compared to the others. No direct or indirect effects on preventive behaviors were observed.
Conclusions:
Briefly viewing an infographic about science appeared to cause a small aggregate increase in trust in science, which may have, in turn, reduced believability of COVID-19 misinformation. The effect sizes were small but commensurate with our 60-second, highly scalable intervention approach. Researchers should study the potential for truthful messaging about how science works to serve as misinformation inoculation, and test how best to do so. Clinical Trial: This study was preregistered at Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04557241) before data collection.
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