Disease prevention is one of the world's biggest challenges, but multidisciplinary research taking place at Northumbria University is finding innovative, sustainable and effective ways of promoting health and wellbeing across the world.
One example has seen researchers explore the implications of the spread of 'fake news' via mobile phone messaging apps during disease outbreaks:
Digital Disease Prevention
Fake news and sharing inaccurate information via social
media has been hitting the headlines in recent times; especially the impact it
is having on people during elections and a major referendum like Brexit.
However, the knock-on effects of sharing potential
misinformation on social platforms during a serious disease outbreak, is less
widely known. Northumbria University is leading new research into how older
adults respond to inaccurate information about infectious disease outbreaks
received via messaging app, WhatsApp.
Social media channels enable fake news and misinformation to
spread quickly through communities and Dr Santosh Vijaykumar from Northumbria’s Department of Psychology recognises the massive threat posed by this, as it
impacts the ability of public health agencies to effectively manage infectious
disease outbreaks.
“My specific interest in WhatsApp really emerges from how
consistently it has been used as a catalyst to spread misinformation related to
infectious diseases,” Dr Vijaykumar explains. “This is a serious problem
especially in Brazil and India, two countries which are at high risk of
infectious disease outbreaks, which are also among WhatsApp’s biggest markets.
“One of the most recent cases was that of the Nipah Virus
outbreak in India, where a lot of misinformation spreading via WhatsApp posed
enormous challenges to public health officials trying to manage the
situation. Messages were circulating
among communities suggesting that the outbreak was a corporate conspiracy, and
that the flesh of chicken was a fertile host for the virus. These messages
meant that people were reluctant to work with public health teams, putting
their own health at risk.”
More than 1.5 billion people in over 180 countries use
WhatsApp to stay in touch with their friends and family. The service is free to
use and allows people to share messages, photos and videos with chosen
individuals or groups.
Dr Vijaykumar says: “WhatsApp is very popular among older
adults in India and previous psychology research has found that the
misinformation effect is more pronounced in older adults as opposed to those in
younger age groups. This means that older adults are especially vulnerable to
believing information that they are presented with.”
In response to this threat posed by misinformation, WhatsApp
– which is owned by Facebook – created the WhatsApp Research Awards for Social
Science and Misinformation. These awards provide funding for researchers to
examine the implications of misinformation spreading on its platform and
identify potential solutions to address this problem.
Dr Vijaykumar has been awarded US$50,000 and is bringing
together an international team of researchers from the Universities of
Edinburgh and Georgia, the Health Systems Research India Initiative and Srishti
School of Art, Design and Technology to work on this project.
Research will begin in January 2019 and is expected to
report its preliminary findings to WhatsApp in May 2019.
Dr Vijaykumar is a member of Northumbria’s
multi-disciplinary team of academics researching digital living. The team comprises
experts from psychology, computing, architecture, design, business and
engineering who are looking at the ways that digital technologies can
revolutionise our lives and cities.
A version of this
article originally appeared in the Northumbria University supplement produced with Times Higher Education.
