SynthesisCognitive research: principles and implications2022
Measuring the effects of misinformation exposure and beliefs on behavioural intentions: a COVID-19 vaccination study.
Synthesis in Cognitive research: principles and implications, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- Overcoming health misinformation in marginalized groups: a systematic review.International journal for equity in health · 2025Pooled it
- Mpox vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- Debunking COVID-19 vaccine misinformation with an audio drama in Ghana, a randomized control trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Fighting fire with fire: Prebunking with the use of a plausible meta-conspiracy framing.British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953) · 2026Article
- Defining Health Misinformation: Theoretical Concept Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Review
- Evaluating real-world effects of one-off fake news exposure.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Immunization Coverage and Barriers among Hajj and Umrah Pilgrims: Insights into Vaccine Uptake and Compliance.Journal of epidemiology and global health · 2025Article
- Article
- Use of narratives to enhance childhood vaccine acceptance: Results of an online experiment among Canadian parents.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2024Article
- Beyond COVID: towards a transdisciplinary synthesis for understanding responses and developing pandemic preparedness in Alaska.International journal of circumpolar health · 2024Review
- Insights into the Transmission, Host Range, Genomics, Vaccination, and Current Epidemiology of the Monkeypox Virus.Veterinary medicine international · 2024Review
- Complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine-specific COVID-19 misinformation on social media: A scoping review.Integrative medicine research · 2023Article
- Political network composition predicts vaccination attitudes.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2023Article
- Debriefing works: Successful retraction of misinformation following a fake news study.PloS one · 2023Article
- Public knowledge, attitudes, and practices during the first wave of COVID-19 in Indonesia.Frontiers in public health · 2023Observational
- Acceptance towards Monkeypox Vaccination: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- False memories for true and false vaccination information form in line with pre-existing vaccine opinions.Applied cognitive psychology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Misinformation has been a pressing issue since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, threatening our ability to effectively act on the crisis. Nevertheless, little is known about the actual effects of fake news on behavioural intentions. Does exposure to or belief in misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines affect people's intentions to receive such a vaccine? This paper attempts to address this question via three preregistered experiments (N = 3463). In Study 1, participants (n = 1269) were exposed to fabricated pro- or anti-vaccine information or to neutral true information, and then asked about their intentions to get vaccinated. In Study 2, participants (n = 646) were exposed to true pro- and anti-vaccine information, while Study 3 (n = 1548) experimentally manipulated beliefs in novel misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines by increasing exposure to the information. The results of these three studies showed that exposure to false information about the vaccines had little effect on participants' intentions to get vaccinated, even when multiple exposures led them to believe the headlines to be more accurate. An exploratory meta-analysis of studies 1 and 3, with a combined sample size of 2683, showed that exposure to false information both supporting and opposing COVID-19 vaccines actually increased vaccination intentions, though the effect size was very small. We conclude by cautioning researchers against equating exposure to misinformation or perceived accuracy of false news with actual behaviours.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.