This study integrates criminological social learning and psychological explanations of individual factors and mechanisms for science denial to offer an individual-level analysis of ‘alternative lifestyle’ subcultural groups in cyberspace in order to understand the assimilation, success and proliferation of potentially dangerous health-related misinformation. Through a rigorous passive online ethnography of two relevant self-identifying ‘alternative lifestyle’ Italian- and English-speaking online communities observed over the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, we observed the unfolding of online narratives and behavioural intentions of criminological and psychological interest. We identified in our data both individual factors and mechanisms for science denial and clues to social learning, and we showed how they interrelate. Furthermore, by looking at the linguistic and visual resources used to shape how participants think through social learning mechanisms, we identified four main narrative frames: informative; oppositional; empathetic; and agency and spirituality. The findings of this study provide a more comprehensive understanding of the reasons for and mechanisms behind medical misinformation online and suggest ways to mitigate the related harms.

这项研究结合了犯罪社会学习和对个体因素的心理学解释以及对科学否定的机制，对网络空间中的“另类生活方式”亚文化群体进行了个体层面的分析，以了解与健康相关的潜在危险信息的同化，成功和扩散。通过在COVID-19大流行初期观察到的两个相关的自我识别的“意大利语”和“英语”在线社区的严格被动在线人种志，我们观察到了在线叙事的展开以及犯罪学和心理学的行为意图利益。我们在数据中确定了否认科学的个体因素和机制以及社会学习的线索，并展示了它们之间的相互关系。此外，通过查看用来塑造参与者如何通过社交学习机制思考的语言和视觉资源，我们确定了四个主要的叙事框架：反对派 善解人意 以及代理和灵性。这项研究的结果提供了对在线医疗错误信息的原因和背后机制的更全面的理解，并提出了减轻相关危害的方法。