Leveraging Religiosity against COVID-19 Misinformation: Evidence from India

• In Event: Putting Social Identities to Work for Democracy

Abstract

Covid-19 misinformation dilutes beliefs in science and increases social tensions. How can such misinformation be corrected, especially when it is rooted in long-standing belief systems and group identities? We answer this question with an experiment in India that develops a novel correction strategy (N=1600). Since people with higher levels of religiosity and support for religious nationalist parties are more likely to believe covid misinformation, we use verses from religious scriptures exhorting people to believe in the truth, alongside corrections, to reduce the uptake of falsehoods. We demonstrate that this technique is significantly effective at improving information processing, even beyond the specific story corrected. We further show that while targeting religious dissonance dilutes beliefs in conspiracy theories, targeting group norms is more effective at reducing medical misinformation. Overall, we demonstrate the importance of religiosity in fueling beliefs in misinformation, and underscore that the efficacy of corrections depends on the type of misinformation at hand.

Authors

• Sumitra Badrinathan, American University

• Simon Chauchard, University Carlos 3 of Madrid