6 Reasons Why People Believe Health Misinformation

Reasons 1 and 2: Mistrust of Experts and Personal Autonomy

Almost everyone has had at least one bad experience with the health care system—particularly in the United States, where both insurance and health care delivery lack consistency and coordination. And historically, certain groups—such as women and people of color—have faced discrimination and inequities in health care. Those bad experiences with health care can lead to mistrust of clinicians and the entire health care system.

Greater “body autonomy” (which used to be predominantly related to women’s reproductive choices) dramatically expanded during the COVID pandemic, along with the concept of medical “freedom of choice” related to vaccine requirements and mask recommendations.

Combining those two characteristics—mistrust of the health care system and personal autonomy—can make people primed to look elsewhere for answers to their health care questions and needs. A diverse industry has developed to fill that need. Specifically, individuals and organizations take advantage of people’s mistrust of health care by providing alternative information (a.k.a., “alternative facts”) about how to treat their health problems or improve their overall health.

Reason 3: Misinformation Makes Money (and Advances Other Agendas)

Those individuals and businesses often operate on social media where the platforms have no liability for the accuracy of the information (i.e., “content”) posted or shared by their users. And they typically make money through the sale of some type of product (e.g., nutritional supplements, books, or videos) or through advertising. For example, during the COVID pandemic, ivermectin (an anti-parasitic used primarily in veterinary medicine) was one of many products touted and sold as a way to treat or prevent COVID-19. And this continues in 2025 with several states authorizing the over-the-counter sale of ivermectin, which can also be purchased online.[i]

Social media platforms support the spread of health misinformation with algorithms that show people things that produce fear or anxiety because that type of content generates more likes, shares, and re-posts—all of which benefit the social media company. [Note: Pinterest has prohibited health misinformation since 2019.[ii] This policy was initiated in response to vaccine misinformation related to measles outbreaks that year.]

Other reasons why people spread misinformation (including health misinformation) are to seek geopolitical or business advantages and for altruistic reasons. Altruistic spreaders believe the misinformation and are trying to help others.

Reason 4: Misinformation Sounds Like It’s True

Spreaders of health misinformation use the concept of “truthiness” that Stephen Colbert coined in 2005 to describe something that sounds true but is false.[iii] Health misinformation is often “truthy” because it typically starts with a nugget of truth. An example of this was the misinformation that COVID-19 vaccines caused women to become infertile. The nugget of truth was that when a vaccine trains the immune system, the person’s temperature often becomes elevated. This higher temperature can lead to changes in a woman’s menstrual cycle, which can happen with a fever from any cause. This nugget of truth was then warped into misinformation that vaccines caused infertility.

A similar methodology for creating misinformation is to take a correlation—such as the sales of sunscreen and shark attacks, which both peak in the summer—and falsely claim a causation link, like sunscreen attracts sharks, or childhood vaccines cause autism.

Reasons 5 and 6: Charisma and Simplicity Sell Soothing Misinformation

Spreaders of health misinformation are generally much more convincing than those communicating accurate health information for two reasons: Medical experts often communicate in long, nuanced explanations in ways that can be somewhat boring—or even paternalistic or condescending. Conversely, misinformation spreaders are often charismatic (in ways that may be seen as friendly or altruistic), and their “sound bites” are simple, easy to understand, concise, and emotionally engaging.

That is, experts are hard to understand because they seek to give complete answers, while sellers of misinformation seek to engage emotionally with their audiences to get them to buy what they are peddling. And their messages are gripping—sometimes to the level of generating fear. (Do this—or buy this—or you and your family will face the consequences of illness or death!)

Truthy, simple explanations for scary things (like COVID-19, cancer, or crime) also appeal to people who are already burdened by the many complexities of modern life. That is, people who have many day-to-day challenges are not looking for more worries to add to the pile weighing them down. They are much more likely to gravitate to simple explanations that blame someone or something else (e.g., the Federal government, the health care system, or vaccines) and provide easily digestible solutions that soothe their psyche and reduce the cognitive dissonance between what they believe and what they are hearing from mistrusted health experts.

Conclusion

People who believe health misinformation are not bad people or stupid. Rather, they should be viewed as victims that sellers of misinformation have taken advantage of because of their misplaced mistrust and strong personal autonomy. I use the term “victim” here because the solution to helping misinformed people is to engage with them in personal and emotionally engaging ways. This approach will be discussed in future blog posts here, and is described in my book Reversing Misinformation: How to Help Your Friends, Family & Community.