Study Shows Anti-Vaxx Websites Spread Misinformation (Shocking! I know.)
Concerned parents are being duped by deceptive sound bites and junk science
http://time.com/4213054/anti-vaxx-websites/
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To understand how concerned parents could be persuaded not to vaccinate their children, a team of researchers at San Diego State University and I conducted a deep dive into 480 anti-vaccine websites to analyze their tactics and assess their methods. The picture that emerged from these sites—from Natural News to Mercola to Think Twice—is at once bracing and informative: Anti-vaccine websites leverage an arsenal of powerful and persuasive tactics to manipulate people into believing vaccines are dangerous.
Predictably, these sites appeal directly to people who are interested in choice, personal freedom and the ability to make their own informed decisions — all valiant ideals. “Natural treatments” and “homeopathic remedies” are held high and offered up as bona fide vaccine alternatives. Yet in the end, these sites betray those who visit them.
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Any sense of measured discourse is nearly impossible to find on anti-vaccine websites, as the volume and vitriol of the most ardent anti-vaxxers consistently drowns out reason—and science. Mark Zuckerberg’s personal Facebook post last month—a photo of his two-month-old daughter about to be vaccinated—is a case study in this alter-world.
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So the challenge is this: Health care providers and public health officials need to find ways to break through this fog of misinformation by appealing to the people whose minds can be changed. By taking a page from the anti-vaxxers’ playbook and explaining that smart vaccine decisions are likewise linked to important values — choice, freedom and individuality — we can recast this conversation.
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Yes, I know we all know this, but I like how the research compiled the reality precisely, and offered strategies to combat such misinformation.
= new reply since forum marked as read
That's a good solid sciency-type site.
