Misinformation about COVID-19 is a major threat to public health. Using five national samples from the UK (n= 1050 and n= 1150), Ireland (n = 700), the USA (n = 700), Spain (n= 700) and Mexico (n= 700), we examine predictors of belief in the most common statements about the virus that contain misinformation. We also investigate the prevalence of belief in COVID-19 misinformation across different countries and the role of belief in such misinformation in predicting relevant health behaviours. We find that while public belief in misinformation about COVID-19 is not particularly common, a substantial proportion views this type of misinformation as highly reliable in each country surveyed. In addition, a small group of participants find common factual information about the virus highly unreliable. We also find that increased susceptibility to misinformation negatively affects people's self-reported compliance with public health guidance about COVID-19, as well as people's willingness to get vaccinated against the virus and to recommend the vaccine to vulnerable friends and family. Across all countries surveyed, we find that higher trust in scientists and having higher numeracy skills were associated with lower susceptibility to coronavirus-related misinformation. Taken together, these results demonstrate a clear link between susceptibility to misinformation and both vaccine hesitancy and a reduced likelihood to comply with health guidance measures, and suggest that interventions which aim to improve critical thinking and trust in science may be a promising avenue for future research.

关于COVID-19的错误信息是对公共卫生的主要威胁。使用来自英国（n = 1050和n = 1150），爱尔兰（n = 700），美国（n = 700），西班牙（n = 700）和墨西哥（n =700），我们检查了关于包含错误信息的最常见病毒陈述的信念预测因子。我们还调查了不同国家对COVID-19错误信息的相信程度以及对这种错误信息的看法在预测相关健康行为中的作用。我们发现，虽然公众对COVID-19的错误信息的普遍看法并不普遍，但相当大比例的人认为这种错误信息在每个接受调查的国家/地区都是高度可靠的。此外，一小部分参与者发现有关该病毒的常见事实信息非常不可靠。我们还发现，对错误信息的敏感性增加，对人们自我报告的关于COVID-19的公共卫生指南以及人们的遵从性产生负面影响 愿意接种抗病毒疫苗，并向脆弱的朋友和家人推荐该疫苗。在所有接受调查的国家/地区中，我们发现对科学家的信任度更高和具有更高的计算能力与对冠状病毒相关错误信息的敏感性降低有关。综上所述，这些结果证明了对错误信息的敏感性与疫苗犹豫之间的明确联系，以及遵守健康指导措施的可能性降低，并且表明旨在改善批判性思维和对科学的信任的干预措施可能是未来研究的有希望的途径。 。