abstract

• The dissemination of misinformation on social media during the pandemic has had a significant impact on people’s perception, leading to misconception in terms of healthcare actions and treatments. This study is aimed to investigate the relationship between academic degrees and the level of misinformation on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. A scientifically validated survey was used to evaluate data from N = 101 volunteer participants on aspects such as monthly income, academic degree, internet, and social media usage habits, as well as true and false questions about COVID-19 facts. The results revealed a relationship between academic degree level and the belief in false news related to the pandemic; where 75%25 of the doctoral level population identified fake news in contrast to those at the primary and secondary levels, which obtained 37.5%25 and 39.58%25 respectively. Ultimately, this study could provide insights about how the Mexican population learn on social media and how strategies can be implemented to foster a better understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic, and more importantly in future ones. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.

authors

• Camacho Juárez José Sergio
• Reyes Bersain Alexander

publication date

• 2024-01-01

published in

• IFMBE Proceedings  Proceedings

keywords

• academic degree; COVID-19; Fake News; misinformation Fake detection; Social networking (online); Academic degrees; Fake news; Internet media; Learn ; Level populations; Me-xico; Media usage; Misinformation; Social media; Usage habits; COVID-19

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1007/978-3-031-46936-7_27

PubMed ID

start page

• 250

end page

• 256

volume

• 97

issue