Disinformation in the context of health information behaviour

Abstract

During the Covid-19-pandemic, health information behaviour received much attention and was put into focus, especially as much disinformation around the topic spread on social media and in different information sources. Disinformation is misleading, misunderstanding or even completely false information that can harm a person, social group, organisation or even a country and potentially have a dangerous impact (Fallis, 2015). Although the concept of disinformation has been researched in information behaviour before the pandemic (e.g. Karlova and Fisher, 2013), it is increasingly discussed in other research fields and the health domain due to its potential to harm. Disinformation in the health context can lead to poor health choices and can inhibit efforts to relieve health crises, for example mistrust in vaccinations against Covid-19 disease, and impacts health information literacy (e.g. Darrin and Elliot, 2020; De Gani et al., 2022). The need for strategies to counteract the harmful influences of disinformation in the health domain is inevitable. For that, we need to better understand the behaviour that results in disinformation and evolves around it.