NCT04112680

Contagious Misinformation Trial

The Contagious Misinformation Trial: Debunking Prevalent Misinformation About an Infectious Disease Through Audio Dramas in Freetown, Sierra Leone

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 750 (actual)
• Sponsor: Karolinska Institutet · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

In the Contagious Misinformation Trial the investigators aim to debunk prevalent misinformation about an infectious disease using two evidence-based methods of debunking. The two debunking methods are packaged in two audio dramas of 4 episodes each, which will be sent to the WhatsApp of participants who are randomised to intervention group 1 or 2. The control group will receive audio messages about a different topic. The primary outcome is the reduction in belief in two misinformation statements about the infectious diseases.

Conditions

• Misinformation

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Debunking Misinformation through Audio Dramas	The audio dramas (one drama of 4 episodes per intervention group), aim to debunk misinformation about an infectious disease. The content of the two dramas differ in the two groups; in intervention group 1, the drama will state the misinformation and provide a plausible alternative, delivered through a trusted source, in line with world views. In intervention group 2, the audio drama will avoid mentioning the misinformation and instead only state the correct information about the infectious disease
BEHAVIORAL	Control group audio jingles	The control group will receive audio jingles about exclusive breastfeeding

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-10-07
• Primary completion: 2019-12-21
• Completion: 2019-12-21
• First posted: 2019-10-02
• Last updated: 2020-01-22

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Sierra Leone