Abstract
We examine how information from trusted social media sources can shape knowledge and behavior when misinformation and mistrust are widespread. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe, we partnered with a trusted civil society organization to randomize the timing of the dissemination of messages aimed at targeting misinformation about the virus to 27,000 newsletter WhatsApp subscribers. We examine how exposure to these messages affects individuals' beliefs about how to deal with the virus and preventative behavior. In a survey of 864 survey respondents, we find a 0.26σ increase in knowledge about COVID-19 as measured by responses to factual questions. Through a list experiment embedded in the survey, we further find that potentially harmful behavior-not abiding by lockdown guidelines-decreased by 30 percentage points. The results show that social media messaging from trusted sources may have substantively large effects not only on individuals' knowledge but also ultimately on related behavior.
Highlights
Social media platforms have become a central source of information for individuals in the Global South [1]
We examine the effectiveness of WhatsApp messages from a trusted civil society organization (CSO) in Zimbabwe aimed at targeting misinformation in the context of the COVID-19
Contrary to mixed results from the Global North on the dissemination of health-related misinformation [15,16,17,18], we find that social media messaging against misinformation from a trusted source can increase both knowledge about COVID-19 and preventative behavior
Summary
Social media platforms have become a central source of information for individuals in the Global South [1]. Social media platforms are highly susceptible to misinformation due to low cost of access, virality of posts, individuals’ trust in their social network, and the high cost of fact-checking [3,4,5,6]. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as had been the case with the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic [7] and the 2015-2016 Zika epidemic [8], social media has exacerbated this misinformation problem and muddied public knowledge about the virus throughout the Global South [9,10,11]. We examine the effectiveness of WhatsApp messages from a trusted civil society organization (CSO) in Zimbabwe aimed at targeting misinformation in the context of the COVID-19
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