Makhoul, Jihad, et al. “Analyzing the Social Context of Health Information and Misinformation during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case of Emerging Inequities in Lebanon.” Global Health Promotion, vol. 28, no. 1, 2021, pp. 33–41., https://doi.org/10.1177/1757975920984178. 

Analyzing the social context of health information and misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic: a case of emerging inequities in Lebanon

 •  collectivist nature of society

•  socioeconomic conditions

 •  a history of state/government failures

 •  general mistrust in the national health system.


Collective societal factors affecting health information/misinformation in Lebanon

strategized information exchange with the goal of promoting healthy behavior among the public

Risk Communication in Public Health

 • The article addresses how the social, economic, and political contexts people live in affect how they receive information from officials and interpret and act on that information


University of California, Berkeley

As the term indicates, health misinformation is misinformation related to health. Themes might be viruses, food safety, nutrition and vaccinations (Bode & Vraga, 2018; Chen et al., 2018; Lazer et al., 2018; Lewandowsky et al., 2012; Oh & Lee, 2019). These  misinformation can negatively affect people’s health behaviors (Chou et al., 2018; Oh & Lee, 2019). 

Health misinformation

“(a) examine how factors such as anxiety about health-related issues, preexisting beliefs, and repeated exposure to health misinformation may contribute to the acceptance of the unverified information on social media, and (b), to explore
demographic differences (e.g., sex, age, education level, and social-economic status) in health misinformation acceptance”


Goals of a study by Pan, Liu & Fang (2021) about health misinformation acceptance

- Don’t repeat wrong information because of the repition-based truth-effect.
- Institutions should work to increase people’s trust in them to reduce health-related anxiety.
- Active inoculating and prebunking.
- Repeated warnings.
- Improve people’s health literacy.


Pan, Liu and Fang's (2021) recommendations on how to fight the spread of health misinformation

One recent event that led to a surge of health misinformation was the COVID-19 Pandemic. Misinformation spreading had dangerous consequences, such as causing people to overreact (trying ineffective treatments, hoarding goods) or underreact (neglect public-safety measures, unintentionally spread the virus). 

Misinformation and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Misinformation/disinformation about vaccines that can affect vaccine confidence and vaccination rates.

Vaccine Misinformation

• Previous studies show group relations and shared belief systems often correlate with vulnerability to misinformation.

• Study looks at the correlation between misperception and group affiliations, media exposure, and lived experiences.

•Focuses on the role of racial/ethnic,  religious, and partisan group affiliations relate to misperceptions people held about COVID-19



Group level misperceptions about COVID-19


Correcting health misinformation has been found to be more effective than corrections related to political information. Ingroup protective behavior, confirmation bias, and motivated reasoning could contribute to the greater difficulty in correcting political misinformation. 

Health Misinformation Corrections

* Definition
* Terms
* Emergence
* Risks
* Similarities with and differences from diet culture

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