Younger adults tend to blame individual social media users for false health claims online, whereas older adults look to platforms, the government, news outlets, and doctors for solutions. A study published in Societies analyzed responses from 6,252 U.S. adults to reveal how age and education shape accountability for digital medical misinformation.
Age Divides Views on Digital Misinformation
When asked who should clean up false health claims online, Americans split sharply depending on age and schooling, as Devdiscourse reported. Social media companies topped the list of responsible parties, but only 31.4% of respondents selected them. Individual users placed second at 18.55%, followed by the government at 15.87%, medical providers and health systems at 13.79%, and news media at 12.6%.
Researchers Gulzar Shah and Indira Karibayeva of Georgia Southern University’s Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health analyzed responses from the National Cancer Institute’s 2022 Health Information National Trends Survey, known as HINTS 6.
The study found that age deeply fractures public opinion on the matter. Adults aged 18 to 34 had 41% lower adjusted odds of naming platforms rather than individual users compared with adults 65 and older, and even lower odds of naming medical providers.
“Perceived responsibility for reducing health misinformation on social media differs mainly by age and education,” Shah and Karibayeva write.
Education divided groups even more than age did. People without a high school diploma showed about 3.13 times the odds of college graduates when pointing to the government to solve the problem. However, the authors caution that the survey captured opinions about responsibility rather than identifying who actually falls for health misinformation.
Adults Differ in Who They Believe Should Fix Health Falsehoods
- Perception vs. Reality: The survey measures who adults think should fix online health falsehoods, not who is most vulnerable to believing them.
- The Generational Split: Younger adults put the burden on peers posting content, while older generations look to institutional authorities like doctors and regulators.
- The Educational Divide: Lower levels of formal education correlate strongly with looking to the government for oversight on digital health claims.
Socioeconomic Factors Shape Trust in Authorities
Research published in JMIR Aging by Prathyusha Galinkala, Elise Atkinson, and Celeste Campos-Castillo said that older adults experience distinct challenges with digital platforms. Respondents aged 50 to 64 and 65 to 74 were more likely than 18-to-34-year-olds to report that they strongly agree it is difficult for them to detect health-related falsehoods on social media.
These older cohorts also display a greater reliance on traditional medical infrastructure. Compared to younger demographics, older adults aged 65 to 74 and 75 and older were more likely to believe that medical providers should be actively responsible for reducing online falsehoods. This reliance intersects with broader digital safety concerns; according to the FBI, in 2023, people aged 60 and above experienced the greatest loss among all age groups to cyberattacks, totaling $3.4 billion.
| Responsible Party | Percentage of Respondents |
|---|---|
| Social Media Companies | 31.4% |
| Individual Users | 18.55% |
| Government | 15.87% |
| Medical Providers & Health Systems | 13.79% |
| News Media | 12.6% |
Limited Clinical Time and Data Limitations Hinder Debunking Myths
Older demographics increasingly look to physicians to debunk digital falsehoods, but clinical realities present hurdles. Time during the clinical visit is limited, complicating efforts to filter and correct complex health myths face-to-face. The HINTS 6 dataset predates the current wave of AI-generated health content, and the survey recorded a household response rate of just 28.1%.
The statistical significance of the age link remained somewhat volatile, losing strength under some alternative analyses, whereas the education effect held firm throughout the evaluations.
Researchers Need New Tools to Help Older Adults Filter Falsehoods
Future research is needed to discover new approaches and tools tailored to older adults to assist with filtering and discrediting health-related falsehoods online, as the authors of the study note.
References
- Shah, G., & Karibayeva, I. Study published in Societies. MDPI Societies
- Galinkala, P., Atkinson, E., & Campos-Castillo, C. Age Variation Among US Adults’ Social Media Experiences. JMIR Aging. JMIR Aging
- Citizens. How older adults can practice cybersecurity and online safety. Citizens
