Brief Informational Intervention for COVID-19 Misinformation Prophylaxis
Completed · Not applicable · Has a placebo group
Conditions studied: COVID19 Behavioral Prophylaxis
In brief
As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has continued to affect life in the United States, the important role of non-pharmaceutical preventive behaviors (such as wearing a face mask) in reducing harm has become clear. In parallel to the pandemic, researchers have observed an "infodemic" of misinformed or inconsistent narratives about COVID-19. There is growing evidence that misinformed COVID-19 narratives are associated with a wide variety of undesirable behavior (e.g., burning down cell towers). Further, individuals' adherence to recommended COVID-19 preventive guidelines has been inconsistent, and such mandates have engendered opposition and controversy. Recent research suggests the possibility that trust in science and scientists may be an important thread to weave throughout these seemingly disparate components of the modern public health landscape. Thus, this paper describes the protocol for a randomized trial of a brief, digital intervention to increase trust in science. The objective of this trial is to examine if exposure to a curated infographic can increase trust in science, reduce believability of misinformed narratives, and increase likelihood to engage in preventive behaviors.
Key facts
- Study ID
- NCT04557241
- Run by
- Indiana University
- People needed
- 1017
- Starts
- 2020-01-14
- Expected to finish
- 2021-01-31
- Last updated by the study team
- 2021-02-09
Who can join
Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.
You may qualify if…
- To be included, participants must be identified by Prolific as part of a nationally-representative sample. Participants will also be required to be age 18 or older, and to reside in the United States.
You may not qualify if…
- Individuals who decline to digitally sign the informed consent document will be excluded and replaced. Per recent best practice recommendations for crowdsourced digital research, attention checks and screens for "bots" and international users with virtual private networks to mimic US internet protocol addresses will be embedded within the instruments, and failure of more than one attention check, or any bot/location check will result in subject exclusion and replacement.
Where it is running
- Digital Intervention (Prolific Study Panel) — Bloomington, Indiana, United States
Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov
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