The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a surge of health misinformation, which has had serious consequences including direct harm and opportunity costs. We investigated (N = 678) the impact of such misinformation on hypothetical demand (i.e., willingness-to-pay) for an unproven treatment, and propensity to promote (i.e., like or share) misinformation online. This is a novel approach, as previous research has used mainly questionnaire-based measures of reasoning. We also tested two interventions to counteract the misinformation, contrasting a tentative refutation based on materials used by health authorities with an enhanced refutation based on best-practice recommendations. We found prior exposure to misinformation increased misinformation promotion (by 18%). Both tentative and enhanced refutations reduced demand (by 18% and 25%, respectively) as well as misinformation promotion (by 29% and 55%). The fact that enhanced refutations were more effective at curbing promotion of misinformation highlights the need for debunking interventions to follow current best-practice guidelines.

COVID-19 大流行导致健康错误信息激增，造成了严重后果，包括直接伤害和机会成本。我们调查了（N= 678）此类错误信息对未经证实的治疗的假设需求（即支付意愿）的影响，以及在线宣传（即，喜欢或分享）错误信息的倾向。这是一种新颖的方法，因为以前的研究主要使用基于问卷的推理措施。我们还测试了两种干预措施来抵消错误信息，将基于卫生当局使用的材料的初步反驳与基于最佳实践建议的强化反驳进行对比。我们发现先前接触错误信息会增加错误信息的宣传（增加 18%）。试探性和强化反驳都减少了需求（分别减少了 18% 和 25%）以及错误信息宣传（分别减少了 29% 和 55%）。