The causes and consequences of COVID-19 misperceptions: Understanding the role of news and social media

Executive Summary

This study investigates the relationship between media consumption, misinformation, and important attitudes and behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on three datasets and a sequential mixed-method approach, the authors analyzed nearly 2.5 million tweets referring to COVID-19 in the Canadian context, just over 9,000 articles from nineteen Canadian English-language news sites, and a nationally representative survey covering media consumption, misperceptions, risk perceptions, and social distancing compliance.

The analysis finds that preventative measures are more encouraged and covered on traditional news media, while misinformation appears more frequently on Twitter. Exposure to news media is associated with fewer misperceptions and more social distancing compliance, while conversely, social media exposure is associated with more misperceptions and less social distancing compliance. Misperceptions regarding the virus are in turn associated with less compliance with social distancing measures, even when controlling for a broad range of other attitudes and characteristics. The association between social media exposure and social distancing non-compliance is eliminated when accounting for the effect of misperceptions, providing evidence that social media is linked to non-compliance through increasing misperceptions about the virus — drawing a clear link from misinformation circulating on social media, notably Twitter, to behaviours and attitudes that potentially magnify the scale and lethality of COVID-19.