DDRIG in DRMS: An Investigation of Harm Perceptions from Communications on Social Media about COVID Vaccines

During health crises such as COVID-19, dissemination of health information on social media that is not backed by science has been shown to result in serious harms to communities. These harms include both physical harms (such as losses of life, long- and short-term health harms, or financial harms) and psychological harms (such as loss of trusts on others, emotional sufferings, or confusion). These negative effects can lead to wrong decisions such as drinking bleach to cure the viral infection. In investigating this type of harm, this proposal focuses on two specific research questions: (1) How can the perceptions of harm from information not backed by science be characterized in health crises? (2) How are harm perceptions associated with social media conversations in a health crisis? Results have the potential to advance national health and welfare. Official health organizations such as the CDC and WHO, may gain a better understanding of vulnerable population's threat and need perceptions. An understanding of people's perceptions of harmful inaccurate information ultimately helps improve the reliability of social media channels. Broader impacts include the support of a doctoral dissertation, dissemination of findings at professional outlets, and teaching modules related to this research project are part of a course at University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI).

Despite prior efforts handling harms from inaccurate information in both COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccine contexts, to our knowledge, there is no research that has characterized harm perceptions from such information in health crises. This project takes a sharp focus on perceived harms, rather than on actual harms, and examines the interplay between perceived harms and actual harms. Focusing on the COVID-19 vaccine context, studies examine several COVID-19 vaccine scenarios containing inaccurate information, and characterize harm from that information using three characteristics, i.e., unknown and dread and manageability. Using text mining the project examines the association between harm perceptions and nature of communication in Twitterverse. This is an early attempt at quantitatively measure the harm that results from inaccurate information in the pandemic context. The project advances knowledge in an under-studied area and use conversations in Twitterverse to investigate the nature of communication with respect to harm characteristics. This research bridges social media data with communication theory to unpack the role of social media around crisis communication.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.