ArticleScientific reports2022
Depression, reduced education, and bias perceptions as risk factors of beliefs in misinformation.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Multilayered Epistemic Disruption in AI-Driven Health Misinformation: Conceptual Framework and Viewpoint.JMIR infodemiology · 2026Article
- Development and Preliminary Evaluation of the OCODES Digital Strategy in Response to Health Misinformation: Nominal Group Technique and Retrospective Usability Evaluation Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Online Health Misinformation Susceptibility Increases Health Risk Behaviors and Vaccine Hesitancy: Evidence from Greece.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Associations between susceptibility to online health misinformation, health risk behaviors and vaccine hesitancy among nursing students in Greece.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- CHARLS insights into the impact of dual interactions of chronic diseases on depression in middle-aged and elderly individuals.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Evaluating the Influence of Role-Playing Prompts on ChatGPT's Misinformation Detection Accuracy: Quantitative Study.JMIR infodemiology · 2024Article
- PTSD, FOMO and fake news beliefs: a cross-sectional study of Wenchuan earthquake survivors.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Navigating the infodemic: A qualitative study of university students' information strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 has represented one of the several undesirable effects of the current pandemic. In understanding why people can be more or less at risk to believe in misinformation, emotional distress and education could play a crucial role. The present study aims to analyze the relationship among depressive symptoms, education, and beliefs in misinformation about COVID-19 during the early phase of the pandemic. We do this through a cross-sectional study carried out on a random and representative sample of the Italian population that allows us to go and verify the co-evolution of many factors: i.e., beliefs in misinformation, symptoms of depression, perceptions about COVID-19, ways in which citizens got informed about the pandemic, and sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., age, gender, education). The results show that the relationship between depression and beliefs in misinformation exists and is more complex than hypothesized because it is mediated by individual perceptions. In particular, the most at-risk people to believe in misinformation show higher bias perceptions, higher depression, and lower education. Practical implications are discussed suggesting a supportive intervention at both individual and social levels.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.