Memorialization, Contested Knowledge, and the Sociopsychological Impacts of Disinformation in the Context of COVID-19

The waves of infection and variants of SARS-CoV-2 causing social disruption, sickness, and death continue to reveal a crisis in scientific expertise and authority, as well as the widespread politicization of the pandemic among policymakers and their constituents. This project examines how disinformation (the intentional airing of misleading information), misinformation (falsehoods), and the "infodemic" (a condition of excessive information that makes the solution to a problem more difficult to achieve), influence how individuals and communities in the United States mourn the dead. It focuses on how people manage their social and psychological lives when COVID-19 deaths are variously mourned, dismissed, or blamed on others in a politically fractious environment. The study contributes to understanding the social impact of misinformation and informs public policy responses to both the current pandemic and future public health crises that result in mass fatality, incomplete mourning, and politicized death. The project will also train eighteen graduate and undergraduate students in scientific research methods over the course of the three-year study.

While most studies of public debates focus on texts, such as political speeches, newspaper and scholarly articles, this project explores what behaviors, in the context of the pandemic, have become central to the experience of mourning, and how mourners seek accountability in homes, cemeteries, grief counseling sessions, rituals, virtual commemorations, and social media posts, among other venues. In doing so, it addresses: (1) how COVID-19 misinformation has shifted over the course of its evolution; (2) how contested knowledge has shaped the mourning process for COVID-19 victims and their families; (3) how COVID-19 mourners have defined and pursued accountability in their efforts to counter misinformation; and (4) how altered burial, funeral, and commemorative practices affect mourning. Through social media analysis, in-person and virtual ethnographic engagement, and in-depth interviews, the project analyzes claims and counterclaims in their linguistic, media, and social relational contexts of use. Data and findings will contribute to anthropological understanding of ritual, particularly its efficacy in a contested environment, as well as provide important insight into the processes and consequences of incomplete mourning during a prolonged public health crisis.

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.