An exciting new research study examines social media usage during the pandemic

Published: 04/01/2022

During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media was used to spread twisted information and fact checking according to a new fascinating study at NTU.

Psychologists at our University carried out interviews with people aged 18 – 56 to understand how they interacted with news they suspected to be fake. In the first week of the lockdown, 49% of individuals used social media to access news and information about Covid-19, and 46% stated they had seen false or misleading information related to the pandemic.

Participants in the study described how they encountered information overload in the initial weeks of the pandemic and struggled with complex messaging from official sources, so they turned to simplified social media feeds.

Their news consumption on social media was transformed from actively engaging in content creation and sharing, to instead observing news stories as they unfolded on their social media channels.

Dr Lee Hadlington, senior lecturer in Cyberpsychology at NTU’s School of Social Sciences, suggested:

“Our findings indicate that the Coronavirus pandemic has acted as a perfect storm for fake news, we saw that emotional reactions to the negative information, whether in humour, frustration, or in worry, interestingly led to information being shared.”

Based on the results of the study, the researchers recommend that the social media industry, clinicians, researchers, governments, social media users and their communities come together to raise awareness of the impact of fake news.