Disinformation for Hire: Examining the Production of False COVID-19 Information

Alain Cohn, Jan Stoop and Hatim A. Rahman
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Jan Stoop: Erasmus University Rotterdam
Hatim A. Rahman: Northwestern University

No 22-086/II, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: Misinformation is linked to increased social divisions and adverse health outcomes. While most research focuses on the spread of misinformation, we examine the production of misinformation intended to mislead (disinformation). Our field experiment (N=1,200) found, adjusting for circumstantial factors, 87% of workers in an online labor market completed a job requesting them to create a misleading COVID-19 graph. Viewing a disinformation graph from the experiment negatively affected people’s beliefs and behavioral responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, including increased vaccine hesitancy. Using a “wisdom-of-crowds” approach, we highlight how online labor markets can introduce features that may reduce the production of disinformation.

Keywords: disinformation; field experiment; online labor markets; immoral work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D91 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-11-20
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-lma
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