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