Election and truth: Health misinformation in 2024

Getting your election news from social media? There's a chance it could be false.

Health myths — such as abortions occurring in the last stages of pregnancy, the government controlling the weather, and vaccines causing developmental disability — have spread during the current election cycle and gripped much of the nation.

While it's not new for mis- and disinformation to circulate, the 2024 campaigns come amid increased sophistication of artificial intelligence (and access to it) and many Americans using social media for hours daily. The result: Falsehoods become enmeshed in the same places we seek out credible information, leading to an onslaught of confusion about what's true.

Whether these swarming myths will impact the outcome of the presidential election is yet to be seen — and experts say the role of health misinformation is nearly impossible to predict until results are tallied.

"There is a lot of disinformation in this election, and more in this (presidential) campaign than we've seen historically," said Emily Vraga, professor in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota, specializing in health and political misinformation.

The News Literacy Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit that tracks election misinformation, has identified 747 pieces of mis- or disinformation online (the former being unintentional, the latter intentional) since July 2023. Nearly half of those involved misleading information taken out of context, while 40% are completely fabricated content.

This is likely far from an exhaustive list, said Matt Motta, assistant professor of health law, policy and management at Boston University's School of Public Health, specializing in misinformation, but it still seems to have led to a maelstrom of confusion for voters. An Oct. 10 Pew Research Center poll of more than 9,000 U.S. adults found that more than half say it's difficult to discern accurate election information.

"Seeing can't be believing anymore," said Vraga.

Also unique to this season is how sophisticated and compelling deepfake videos have become, said Motta.

"Anecdotally, it seems easier to produce high-quality fakes than in the past," he said. "The likelihood that, leading up to Election Day, a piece of compelling misinformation could spread and motivate people to get out and vote for a particular candidate is high."

Not only is this vexing for voters, it can also be stressful. Per the Pew Research Center poll, an equal percentage — 59% — of Republicans and Democrats say they feel worn out by the amount of election information they see.

Motta also tracked 1,400 likely voters and their feelings about the upcoming election. What he found surprised him, he said.

"The most stressed-out generations were actually our older cohorts. ... because they're the ones who are paying attention," he said.

Motta's study, which is still being peer-reviewed, found that the prevailing feelings of Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) and the Silent Generation (between 1928 and 1945) were anger, nervousness, anxiety and stress, without about half of those surveyed reporting those emotions.

In contrast, Millennials (1981 to 1996) and Gen Zers (1997 to 2012) were more likely to report being hopeful, whereas a third of them reported being anxious and stressed.

Abortion rights and hurricane relief information have been top culprits for mis- and disinformation this season.

"With reproductive rights being such a topic of interest, we're in a prime state for there to be misinformation," said Beth Hoffman, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, specializing in misinformation in the media. "I'm seeing some health topics being used in ways to court certain voters."

During the Sept. 10 presidential debate, former President Donald Trump said abortions were occurring during the ninth month of pregnancy and that a former governor of West Virginia "said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby. In other words, we'll execute the baby."

While this is not the first time Trump has made the claim about nine-month abortions (he said the same thing in 2016), "execute the baby" temporarily alighted the nation: in pushback and in support, as well as in jest through memes.

Data reported to the Pennsylvania Department of Health shows that out of the 33,730 abortions performed in Pennsylvania clinics in 2023, zero of them occurred in the third trimester.

"Donald Trump has been probably the greatest megaphone to misinformation in modern times," said Motta.

"Reproductive rights has been such an emphasis for both campaigns," said Vraga. "There's been deliberate obfuscation on Trump's position on abortion, and an element of discrepancy between him and his running mate on abortion."

There's some evidence this has led to voter confusion about what their policies actually are.

Hoffman conducted a preliminary study examining YouTube comments on videos about abortion, and she found that many of the comments that spread faulty information misrepresented candidate policy.

"Unfortunately what we often see with health misinformation is a tie-in with political misinformation," she said. "We were surprised to find in our preliminary results that the amount of abortion-related misinformation in the comments section, some of that was policy-related."

Reproductive-related misinformation has not come only from the right. The News Literacy Project identified one false claim from vice presidential candidate Tim Walz that Project 2025 included a federal pregnancy roster for all women, as well as a claim that the 800-page document calls for a nationwide abortion and contraception ban. Trump has made an effort to distance himself from the manifesto, overseen by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

This was noted as an exaggeration of a nugget of truth or "tricks of context," one of the main tactics for misinformation: Project 2025 states that "Conservatives should ardently pursue ... pro-life and pro-family policies," and that "abortion pills pose the single greatest threat to unborn children in the Post-Roe world."

And as Hurricanes Helene and Milton pelted the Southeast, leading to massive flooding, landslides, displacement and hundreds of deaths, conspiracies began to bubble up too. On Oct. 3, a claim that President Biden capped aid to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was debunked, with people saying residents would only receive $750. FEMA also pushed back against this claim on its site.

That ballooned into a conspiracy from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., that the government was controlling the weather.

These claims don't live in a vacuum and have real-world impact. On Oct. 12, 44-year-old North Carolinian Jacob Parsons was arrested after allegedly threatening FEMA aid workers who were responding to Hurricane Helene.

The deluge of misinformation may also lead to voter disengagement, but it's impossible to truly predict until the final election results are in.

To Motta, decreased election engagement among younger voters is not because they're not worried about the election in general — but that it's become so overwhelming that they've virtually checked out.

"The reason why young people aren't as stressed out is because they aren't paying as much attention and, frankly, who can blame them?" he said.

The Pew Research Center poll also found that for those over 65 years of age, 85% said they were following the election closely, compared to 53% of those aged 18 to 29, the age cohort with the lowest engagement.

A New York Times/Siena poll from Oct. 7-10 found that Pennsylvania voters ages 18 to 29 were the least likely to report intention to vote in November compared to other age groups. It's something both candidates have had their eye on; Harris with an attempt to mobilize young voters with the Get Out the Vote campaign and appearing on popular podcasts, and Trump utilizing TikTok and doing an interview with YouTuber and boxer Logan Paul.

"When you get contradictory information, our response is often to check out," said Vraga. "Conflicting information can be demobilizing in some cases."

Until then, the experts have provided tips on how to spot misinformation while scrolling online — and how to unplug if it all starts to feel like too much.

How to spot misinformation

Hoffman recommended the S.M.E.L.L. test.

—Consider the source: Where is the information coming from? Is that source credible?

—Consider the motivation: What is the motive for this information? Is anyone profiting?

—Consider the evidence: Is there a linked source? Among local, national and international outlets, is coverage on this the same?

—Is it logical?: Does this make sense? If it doesn't make sense, it's likely it's not real. (For example, rates of eating ice cream and rates of murder both go up in the summer, but that doesn't mean eating ice cream causes murder.)

—What information is Left out?: What is being omitted? Is there a third factor in this correlation? What context is missing?

Motta also noted being wary of screenshots: Doctoring a tweet or a Facebook post is quite easy.

"If a tweet or a Facebook post is real, I expect to see a link to it so I can check it out myself," he said.

And Vraga urged people to look for strong appeals to emotion, which often are an attempt to sway voters.

How to unplug

"Anxiety, unfortunately, is natural," said Vraga. "This is a really big election. ... Whichever party you support, there's been a lot of anxiety."

Part of media literacy, said Hoffman, is knowing when to unplug. She makes time every day to go outside, even just for a short walk. She also sets limits on consuming online media, which can be done easily with phone timers or restrictions within a specific social media app. Vraga and Motta echoed that intentional time away from political and media consumption is a key factor.

"I think following elections and being an informed citizen is the lifeblood of our democracy," said Motta. "But I save time every day to do things that are not focused on politics. I make time to not think about these things."

Hoffman also recommended channeling stress into offline action. She recently became part of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania.

And it's OK to block or unfollow content that's riling you up unnecessarily.

"Ask yourself, 'What information do I actually need to make this decision?,'" said Vraga. "The rest can go."

"The issues at stake are big ones," said Motta, "but talking about it and ruminating on it all day isn't going to change the outcome."

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