This article studies the World Health Organization’s (WHO) infographic aimed at debunking Covid-19 emphasizing the following: Taking a hot bath does not prevent you from catching Covid-19 because it does not raise your body temperature. In addition to studying its effectiveness, we study its placement i.e. sharing the graphic preemptively by posting/sharing it generally on your feed in comparison to posting it responsively to a misinformation post. We also study whether the effects of correction endure after 1 week.
While the graphic was successful in lowering misperceptions about the scientific component that hot baths do not raise body temperature, there was no success in affecting the misperception that hot baths prevent catching Covid-19. A number of reasons could justify this- to begin with, not a lot of participants believed that hot baths and Covid-19 were related, and even then perhaps they believed that hot baths could prevent Covid-19 despite the fact that they didn’t raise body temperatures. Moreover, the scientific fact is well established as opposed to Covid-19 and the controversies surrounding WHO might have made people more motivated to protect their beliefs. We also found that both preemptive and response correction are equally effective in reducing misperceptions about the science and equally ineffective when it comes to misperceptions around its relation with the virus; except in one instance where responsive correction might be remembered longer. In conclusion, we encourage continued correction because there were no backfire effects, there’s no harm in sharing them, and suggest partnering with platforms and using a WHO bot to automate such responses to misinformation circulating online.
