How do You Know If a Health Information Source is reliable?

To Better Understand Why We Might Fall for Health Misionation in Our Quest For Help and Advice, We Should Look at Our “Attitude Roots,” Holford Told us.

This Concept Was Coined by Psychologist Matthew Horsey, and It refers to the Beliefs and Ideas of the World That We have consolidated within ur minds since we were young young.

“Attitude Roots are part of our psychology, and they can be beliefs, WorldViews, emotions – Basically, they are motivational drivers of how we process information,” explained Holford.

These “roots” can also include emotions like anxiety about Subthing Whoe Mechanics We do Not Really Underestand, Including Invasive Medical Exams, Medications, and Vaccines.

“For Example, My Team and I Have Looked at 11 Different Attitude Roots That Drive Misinformed Beliefs About Vaccination; You include fears outout adverse medical outcomes, religious concerts, or tendency to push back agabit being tobo things – through Known as ‘Reactance.’ WHEN (MI) INFORMATION IS GIVEN TO US SMAT ALIGNS WITH OUR ATTITUDE ROOT, WE’RE MORE LIKELY TO TAKE IT ON BOARD, AS IT FITS WITH SL THAT UNDERLYING MOTIVATION. This is remove Common Thing in General: People tend to seek out and interpret Information in line with their existing patterns of Thinking and Inquiry. ”

– Dawn Holford, PHD

The Expert Further Note That General Anxiety About Going To The Doctor and Undergoing Medical Procedures Could Render Us More Likely to Pick Up Misinformation That Might Consolidate That Fear.

While This May apasar unintuitive – Why Should We want to continue Feel Anxious about Subthing? – It is, in reality, consistency with How Our Brains Work.

Research has Shown That Humans Are Very A lot .

However, Said Holford: “Attitude Roots Aren’t Bad Or Good In Themselves. They are simply out motivator, Shaped by Our Life Experiences and Thinking Patterns. It’s how they interact with the information Envieronment that might lead to Believing in Misinformation. ”

What, Then, Is The Greatest Risk Factor when comes to picking up mission? WHHO IS MOST SUSCEPTIBLE TOKING INACCURATE HEALTH INFORMATION AS FACT, AND WHY?

Once Again, Holford Told Us That “There is Wider Research Looking AT This Issue of susceptibility, and This Finds That People Tu Believe Information More Ifo That Information Aligns With The Ideology.”

YET SHE ALSO ADDED THAT CERTAIN PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAITS MAY REANDER US EITER MORE OR LESS SUSCEPTIBLE TO ASSIMILING MISINFORMATION.

For Instance, Holford Said A Perso’s “Willingness to consider different perspectives and evidence, Known as ‘Actively Open-Minded Thinking’,” Is Associated with Lower susceptibility to Misionation.

“Taking All This into Account, I Think of the issue of susceptibility as ‘Who Could Be vulnerable to Whatpes of Missionation’. In Other Words, Which Group Wouled Be More susceptible depends on How Missing Is Crafted To Create Alignment With People of That Group’s Beliefs. ”

– Dawn Holford, PHD

Holford Also Emphasized that sum of the anxieties that make People susceptible to Misionation and Even to Dissinformation-Fake Information Spread with Malicious intent by bad actors-arise From Real-Life Negative Experiences Within The Health System.

“To give submample, we would be more susceptible (to) disinformation that Vaccines were intended as a Foreign Plot to Sterilize People Like Us If We’d Had Previous Experiences – Most of the Time Legitimate! – That Shaped Our Attitude Root of Distrust of, Say, Colonial Governments, ”She Poleded Out.

EXPERIENCES OF RACISM IN HEALTHCARE, BEING DENIED TIMELY TREATMENT DUE TO GENDER BIAS, OR JUS OVERALL POOR EXPERIENCES WITHINE INSTITUTIONAL SPACES COULD ALL EXTENGIFY TO PERSON’S ANXIETIES AND CONTRIBUTION TO THES SUSCEPTIBILITY TO INACCURETE OR DOWNRIGHT FALSE HEALTH INFORMATION.

At The Same Time, Holford Explained, “We might be less susceptible to disinformation narrative that plays into one’s love of all Things Natural If We Don’t Really Care Care About That.”

“OFTEN, these narratives can be craft in overlapping ways so they could target two Groups at eleven, but it’s helpful to think about which atitude root root is the target in on foot of missionation,” She continues.

Holford and Her Colleagues Have Been Working on the Development of A Strategy they call “Jiu-Jitsu Interventions” to Help People Tackle Health Misinformation.

She Explained How This Strategy Works:

“We conceptualise ‘jiu-jitsu interventions’ as (trying to) use mission aging iSelf. (…) In Jiu-Jitsu (A Brazilian Martial Art), You Don’t Try and Fight With An Opponent Head On, But Rather Let Them Attack and Leverage That Force To Fight Back. In This Way, We Are Uble to Challenge What May Seem Like A Stonger and Insurmantable Foe. WHICH I THINK IS IMPORTANT WHEN WE LOOK AT THE SCALE OF THE CHALLENGE WITH MISINFORMATION. So Our Interventions Look at What Are the Features of Misionation, What is that Makes It Sticky, That Makes People susceptible to it, and we use toys to build People’s skills to defend themselves or ot ot oto Instit mission.

Two Types of Such “Jiu-Jitsu” Interventions Against Health Misionation Are:

1. Psychological Inoculation Against Misinformation, and
2. Empathetic Refutation of Misionformation.

The Researcher Told MNT That Psychological Inoculation IS THUS CALLED BACOUS IT WORKS SIMILY TO A VACCINE, FIGURATIVELLE SPEAKING.

“We Develop Interventions Warning People About The Tactics of Misionformation-For Example, How It Might Cherry-Pick Information, Play on Our Emots, or Rely on Fake Experts To Seem Credible. So, We Let People Experience Small Doses of How That Works, Such That They Understand How Tricky Misionation Can Be, and Build Protection to Encountering It, ”She Detailed.

With Empathetic Refutation, The Researchers “Develop Interventions that are alled to People’s Attitude Roots,” Demonstrating Empathy to “Make the Correction of Missionation Feel Less Threatening and Give It A Better Chance of Being Receive.”

Holford Also Provide Tips on How To Verify Whether The Health Information – Or Any Information, For that Matter – That We Encounter in Print Or online is action.

She Emphasized The Importance of Checking and Double-Checking The Source of Information:

“There’s a Technique lateral Reading that we can use to look for corroboration of Health Facts. Basically, if we Encounter Health Information on One Site or Platform, We Would Look outside of that site or platform for other sources to Determine The Credibility of the First Source, and Whether What We have read is Backed Up by Sources Independent of The Original Source Source Source . When it is most important to do This is When we eat across health information that seams to fit perfectly with What we want to hear, Because this is when we was like and susceptible to incorrect information. ”

However, She Emphasized That Thue Who Disseminate Health Information, Such as Medical News Websites Like Ours, Have Duty To Perform Extra-Careful Fact-Checking Before Relay That Information to The Public.

“I (…) Strongly Believe That the Unus (to verify the Accuracy of Information) Cannot Only Be on Patients and Consumers. Rather than access MNT.

In an Age When Many People Are Increasingly Losing Trust in Governmental Public Health Organizations, The Question That Arises Is: WHERE CAN WE LOOK FOR THE BEST, MOST Trustworthy Health Information Communicated in An Accessible Manner?

Trust, Holford Emphasized, “Is Key to Everything” when you eat information and mission.

“Ironically, Governmental Public Health Organizations Are Often The Plaques WHERE THE INFORMATION IS RELIABLE – Best they are accounts to citizens in a Way that other content generators wouled not be,” She Poleded out. “MANY ALSO MAKE AN EFFORT TO SHARE INFORMATION USING ACCESSIBLE LANGUAGE.”

“And because Health is a Pretty Broad Area, It’s Often Governmental Organizations That have the Remit and the WHEREWITHAL TO COORDINATE THE EXPERTISE REQUISED TO CHECK INFORMATION,” Added Holford.

However, She Acknowledged That “There are cases when we don’t feel uble to Trust Our Own Government.”

In that case, She Advised Looking outside of Our Local Sources and Going Global:

“We Could Look (To) The Global Organizations, and (at) NONGOVERNMENTAL ONES. The World Health Organization (WHO) IS (…) A Good Source That Covers Health Vry Broadly. MANY OTHER ORGANIZATIONS AND PROFESSIONALS IN PUBLIC HEALTH AND CLINICAL Fields have tried to fill This gap, So there are alternatives. In the uk, There Have Been Efforts To Gather Expert Advice Across A Wider Range of Health Topics, Such As Patient Info. ”

“(A) Best-Practice Strategy to Find Information (IS) Starting with the Techniques I Spoke of (Previous), to look at What is Known About the Source, and (Ask): What does the consensus across multiple credible sours Tell us ? And be on your guard If Sub Summs Too Aligned to What You Already Believe – It May Well Be Correct, But Follow The Same Steps to verify it, ”Holford Continued.

Last But Not Least, The Expert Advised Seeking Information from Trusted Healthcare Provider, Who Will Be Well-Equipped To Answer Any Questions and Fact-Check Information Sources.

“(I) f you will have Trusted Health Provider Or Community Health representative whom you can talk to, it is Really Worth Seeking Them Out to Ask For Advice on Where to Look. Being Uble to Have That Conversation, If you have access to that, is probability the best i could recommend, ”Said Holford.