Russia’s invasion of Ukraine kicked up a maelstrom of misinformation—some produced by strategic Russian propaganda campaigns, and some by anonymous websites or nefarious think tanks.
This new wave of misinformation comes at a time when people in the United States and around the world are still sorting through rampant mis- and disinformation about COVID-19; indeed the World Health Organization defined the last few years as an “infodemic” of false and misleading information.
With so much bad information swirling like chum in the water, can people sort out what’s true and what’s not? Researchers at Northeastern University and several partner institutions found that, yes, by and large people in the U.S. can sift out misinformation about COVID-19 and Ukraine. However, they also found a strong link between believing false information about one issue and believing it about the other.
Researchers with the Covid States Project, a collaboration among Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers universities, found that relatively few (14%) people believed false claims about Ukraine—fewer than those who believe false claims about COVID-19 vaccines (18%).
Importantly, they also found that misperceptions about COVID-19 are by far the strongest predictor—more so than political affiliation, age, gender, or education level—of holding misperceptions about Ukraine. Almost half (45%) of people who hold at least one misperception of Ukraine also hold misperceptions about COVID-19...
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