Years in the past, analysis papers urged that calling consideration to public well being myths after which correcting them may produce an unanticipated “backfire” impact. In different phrases, folks is likely to be extra more likely to keep in mind the myths than to recall the info (corrections). This challenge has main implications for well being educators who promote group water fluoridation. Fortuitously, newer analysis reveals that well being suppliers needn’t hesitate to quote
misinformation after which right it.
An article posted by the Association of American Medical Colleges reported: “Calling out misinformation doesn’t make the issue worse, as some worry.” The Affiliation hyperlinks to a major research review in 2020 that discovered that “it’s extraordinarily unlikely” that fact-checks will trigger the backfire impact. And it was the evaluation’s authors who put these two phrases in italics.
Though it’s preferable to briefly clarify why sure content material is fake, the evaluation concludes that this isn’t important. In keeping with the evaluation, “merely tagging misinformation as false — with no additional clarification as to why it’s false — has proven to considerably cut back perception” in misinformation.
A different review examined 10 research and located that there was no vital distinction in folks’s up to date beliefs when evaluating whether or not or not the preliminary delusion was repeated throughout the correction.
Thanks to those analysis critiques, fluoridation advocates ought to really feel extra assured citing and correcting false info. In reality, as the 2020 review observes, “avoiding the repetition of the unique false impression throughout the correction seems to be pointless and will even hinder corrective efforts.”
