Nimbi Filippo Maria, Giovanardi Guido, Baiocco Roberto, Tanzilli Annalisa, Lingiardi Vittorio
Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Front Psychol. 2023 Feb 17;14:1093763. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1093763. eCollection 2023.
Starting from May 2022, a growing number of monkeypox cases have been identified in several countries in Europe and the United States. To date, information on social reaction to the news circulating about monkeypox is limited. Assessing psychological and social elements related to the tendency to misinterpret monkeypox information is urgent and useful in setting up tailored education and prevention programs for specific populations. The present study aims to explore the association of selected psychological and social variables to monkeypox attitudes as fake news.
Three hundred and thirty-three participants (212 women, 110 men, and 11 other genders) from the general Italian population completed nine self-report measures.
Results showed that people that were more likely to believe that monkeypox was a hoax were: older, heterosexual, politically conservative, and more religious. Moreoverm they were more likely to show more negative attitudes toward gay men, higher levels of sexual moralism, less knowledge and fear about monkeypox, no previous infections of COVID-19, lower number of COVID-19 vaccine doses, and being closer to no-vax theories. On the psychological side, participants that were more likely to believe that the monkeypox was a hoax were associated with lower levels of epistemic trust and order traits, with higher levels of epistemic mistrust, close-mindedness, and ability to process emotions. A full mediation model which explores the relationships between the main variables related to fake news attitudes toward monkeypox was tested, reporting good fit indices.
Results from the current study could be helpful to improve the effectiveness of health communication, design targeted education, and support people to engage in healthier behaviors.
自2022年5月起，欧美多个国家发现了越来越多的猴痘病例。迄今为止，关于社会对流传的猴痘新闻的反应的信息有限。评估与误解猴痘信息倾向相关的心理和社会因素，对于为特定人群制定量身定制的教育和预防计划至关重要且很有帮助。本研究旨在探讨选定的心理和社会变量与将猴痘态度视为假新闻之间的关联。
来自意大利普通人群的333名参与者（212名女性、110名男性和11名其他性别）完成了九项自我报告测量。
结果显示，更有可能认为猴痘是骗局的人具有以下特征：年龄较大、异性恋、政治保守且更虔诚。此外，他们对男同性恋者的态度更消极，性道德观念更强，对猴痘的了解和恐惧更少，未曾感染过新冠病毒，接种的新冠疫苗剂量更少，且更倾向于反疫苗理论。在心理方面，更有可能认为猴痘是骗局的参与者与较低的认知信任和秩序特质水平相关，同时具有较高的认知不信任、思想封闭和情绪处理能力。测试了一个全面的中介模型，该模型探讨了与对猴痘假新闻态度相关的主要变量之间的关系，结果显示拟合指数良好。
本研究结果有助于提高健康传播的有效性，设计有针对性的教育，并支持人们采取更健康的行为。
