Are accuracy discernment and sharing of COVID-19 misinformation associated with older age and lower neurocognitive functioning?

Anastasia Matchanova; Steven Paul Woods; Clayton Neighbors; Luis D Medina; Kenneth Podell; Ilex Beltran-Najera; Christina Alex; Michelle A Babicz; Jennifer L Thompson

doi:10.1007/s12144-023-04464-w

Are accuracy discernment and sharing of COVID-19 misinformation associated with older age and lower neurocognitive functioning?

Curr Psychol. 2023 Mar 8:1-13. doi: 10.1007/s12144-023-04464-w. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Anastasia Matchanova¹, Steven Paul Woods¹, Clayton Neighbors¹, Luis D Medina¹, Kenneth Podell², Ilex Beltran-Najera¹, Christina Alex³, Michelle A Babicz⁴, Jennifer L Thompson¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Houston, 3695 Cullen Blvd, 126 Heyne Bldg (Ste. 239d), Houston, TX 77004 USA.
² Department of Neurology, Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX USA.
³ Indiana University, Bloomington, IN USA.
⁴ Mental Health and Behavioral Science Service, James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, Tampa, FL USA.

Abstract

The online proliferation of COVID-19 misinformation led to adverse health and societal consequences. This study investigated possible differences in COVID-19 headline accuracy discernment and online sharing of COVID-19 misinformation between older and younger adults, as well as the role of individual differences in global cognition, health literacy and verbal IQ. Fifty-two younger (18-35 years old) and fifty older adults (age 50 and older) completed a neurocognitive battery, health literacy and numeracy measures, and self-report questionnaires via telephone. Participants also completed a social media headline-sharing experiment (Pennycook et al., Psychological science, 31(7), 770-780, 2020) in which they were presented with true and false COVID-19 headlines about which they indicated: 1) the likelihood that they would share the story on social media; and 2) the factual accuracy of the story. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance controlling for gender and race/ethnicity showed no effects of age (p = .099) but a significant interaction between actual COVID-19 headline accuracy and the likelihood of sharing (p < .001), such that accuracy was more strongly related to sharing false headlines (r = -.64) versus true headlines (r = -.43). Moreover, a higher likelihood of sharing false COVID-19 headlines was associated with lower verbal IQ and numeracy skills in older adults (rs = -.51--.40) and with lower verbal IQ, numeracy, and global cognition in younger adults (rs = -.66--.60). Findings indicate that headline accuracy judgements, numeracy, and verbal IQ are important contributors to sharing COVID-19 misinformation in both older and younger adults. Future work might examine the benefits of psychoeducation for improving health and science literacy for COVID-19.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04464-w.

Keywords: Aging; COVID-19 misinformation; Health literacy; Neurocognition; Numeracy.

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