Health Misinformation: How to Identify Reliable Sources in an Era of Information Overload

In today’s digital landscape, health information travels at unprecedented speeds through mass and social media channels. While this accessibility puts health advice at our fingertips, it also exposes us to potential misinformation – content that has been misreported, misinterpreted, or is simply inaccurate.

Recent data underscores the scope of this challenge. According to a 2024 Healthline consumer survey, more than half of U.S. respondents reported gathering health information from social media platforms, while 32% relied on advice from family, friends, and colleagues. Paradoxically, these same respondents acknowledged limited trust in the accuracy of these sources.

The situation appears similar across the Atlantic. A nationally representative survey conducted by The Alan Turing Institute found that an overwhelming 94% of the UK population reported encountering misinformation on social media platforms.

“This creates a concerning dynamic where people are consuming information from sources they don’t fully trust,” explains Dawn Holford, PhD, a research fellow in the School of Psychological Science at the University of Bristol. Holford specializes in communication psychology and has extensively studied strategies to prevent and counter health misinformation.

Why We Fall for Health Misinformation

To understand our vulnerability to health misinformation, Holford points to “attitude roots,” a concept developed by psychologist Matthew Hornsey. These roots represent the foundational beliefs and worldviews we’ve developed since childhood.

“Attitude roots are part of our psychology, and they can be beliefs, worldviews, emotions — basically, they are motivational drivers of how we process information,” Holford explains.

These psychological anchors can include emotions like anxiety about medical procedures or treatments we don’t fully understand. “For example, my team and I have looked at 11 different attitude roots that drive misinformed beliefs about vaccination,” she notes. “These include fears about adverse medical outcomes, religious concerns, or even a tendency to push back against being told to do things — a trait known as ‘reactance.'”

When we encounter information that aligns with our existing attitude roots, we’re more likely to accept it, regardless of its accuracy. This tendency reflects confirmation bias – our preference for evidence that supports our pre-existing beliefs – a psychological pattern so powerful that it often resists correction.

“Attitude roots aren’t bad or good in themselves,” Holford clarifies. “They are simply our motivators, shaped by our life experiences and thinking patterns. It’s how they interact with the information environment that might lead to believing in misinformation.”

Who Is Most Vulnerable?

When asked about risk factors for misinformation susceptibility, Holford emphasizes that people generally believe information that aligns with their existing beliefs. However, certain psychological traits can influence our vulnerability.

“A person’s willingness to consider different perspectives and evidence, known as ‘actively open-minded thinking,’ is associated with lower susceptibility to misinformation,” she explains.

Importantly, many anxieties that make people susceptible to misinformation stem from legitimate negative healthcare experiences. Experiences of racism or gender bias in healthcare settings, or generally poor institutional interactions, can heighten anxieties and create fertile ground for misinformation to take root.

“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,” Holford points out.

Protecting Ourselves: The “Jiu-Jitsu” Approach

Holford and her colleagues have developed “jiu-jitsu interventions” to combat health misinformation. “We conceptualize ‘jiu-jitsu interventions’ as trying to use misinformation against itself,” she explains. “In jiu-jitsu, you don’t try to fight an opponent head-on, but rather let them attack and leverage that force to fight back.”

Two key approaches include psychological inoculation and empathetic refutation. Psychological inoculation works similarly to a vaccine, exposing people to weakened forms of misinformation tactics so they can recognize them later. Empathetic refutation aligns corrections with people’s attitude roots, making the information feel less threatening and more acceptable.

Verifying Information Sources

For practical verification of health information, Holford recommends “lateral reading” – looking outside the original source to check its credibility and seeking corroboration from independent sources.

“When it is most important to do this is when we come across health information that seems to fit perfectly with what we want to hear, because this is when we would be most susceptible to incorrect information,” she advises.

However, Holford emphasizes that the responsibility shouldn’t rest solely with consumers. “I strongly believe that the onus cannot only be on patients and consumers. Rather than accepting that it’s just up to us to work out what is true, we can advocate for better information quality control on platforms where people go to find health information.”

Finding Trustworthy Sources

Despite growing skepticism toward governmental health organizations, Holford notes they often provide reliable information due to their accountability to citizens. “Ironically, governmental public health organizations are often the places where the information is reliable — because they are accountable to citizens in a way that other content generators would not be,” she observes.

For those who distrust local sources, Holford suggests looking globally to organizations like the World Health Organization. She also recommends consulting trusted healthcare providers who can answer questions and verify information sources.

“If you have a 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,” she concludes. “Being able to have that conversation, if you have access to that, is probably the best I could recommend.”