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. 2020;3(2):319-342.
doi: 10.1007/s42001-020-00089-2. Epub 2020 Nov 2.

Partisan public health: how does political ideology influence support for COVID-19 related misinformation?

Nicholas Francis Havey  1
Affiliations

Partisan public health: how does political ideology influence support for COVID-19 related misinformation?

Nicholas Francis Havey. J Comput Soc Sci.2020.

Abstract

This study analyzes over 4000 tweets related to six misinformation topics about the COVID-19 pandemic: the use of hydroxychloroquine as treatment, the use of bleach as a preventative measure, Bill Gates intentionally causing the virus, the Chinese Communist Party intentionally causing the virus, and the Deep State causing the virus to ruin the economy and threaten President Trump's reelection chances. Across 5 of 6 topics (excluding bleach), conservatives dominate the discourse on Twitter. Conservatives are also more likely than their liberal peers to believe in and push conspiracy theories that the Chinese Communist Party, Bill Gates, and the Deep State are working in conjunction to infect the population and enact a surveillance state. Pandemic related misinformation has previously been associated with decreased adherence to public health recommendations and adverse health effects and evidence from the current pandemic indicates that adherence to public health recommendations is starkly partisan. This study suggests that the political and informational polarization further facilitated by social media platforms such as Twitter may have dire consequences for public health.

Keywords: COVID-19; Political polarization; Sentiment analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interestNo relevant disclosures.

Figures

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Fig. 1
Sentiment percentages by topic
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Tweet ideology percentages by topic
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Fig. 3
Hydroxychloroquine Tweets
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Bleach Tweets
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Fig. 5
5G Tweets
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Bill Gates Tweets
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CCPV Tweets
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Deep State Tweets
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