WhatsApp in India During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Conditions: Covid19

• Registration Number: NCT04918849
• Lead Sponsor: Yale-NUS College

Brief Summary

Digital misinformation has been flagged as a major risk of the 21st century, with an estimated cost of $78 billion to the global economy each year. Given this scope, we propose to characterize how misinformation is spread via messenger platforms (e.g. WhatsApp).

Specifically, we seek to:

1. Identify metrics of potential misinformation (Aim 1). This is based on the hypothesis that although message contents are highly private, proxy markers can be used to identify potential misinformation.

2. Understand the base-rate by which misinformation is shared via messaging applications (Aim 2). This is founded on the hypothesis that misinformation is endemic on messaging platforms, and thus needs to be documented.

3. Identify "super spreaders" responsible for sending and receiving a large volume of misinformation (Aim 3). Here, we hypothesise that a small group of super spreaders are responsible for the bulk of misinformation-sharing on messaging applications.

The thrust of this work aligns with both government priorities and the grant's thematic areas, providing actionable findings that are timely amidst a worldwide surge of misinformation.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2021-05-21
• Status Verified: 2021-06
• Study First Submitted: 2021-06-08
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-06-08
• Last Update Submitted: 2021-06-08
• Study First Posted: 2021-06-09
• Last Update Posted: 2021-06-09
• Primary Completion: 2021-12-31
• Study Completion: 2021-12-31

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 1000

Inclusion Criteria

• Lived in India for more than 2 years,
• Currently Living in India
• Owns a WhatsApp account

Exclusion Criteria

• Not currently living in India
• Below the ages of 21
• Has not lived in India for more than 2 years
• does not own a WhatsApp account
• Does not speak English or Hindi

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Changes in amount of thinking about the COVID-19 situation across 1 week	1 week, starting from date after baseline survey completion	1 item each day on how much they thought about the outbreak that day (measured on a 5 point scale: min = 1, max = 5; higher scores indicating more thinking about the outbreak).
WhatsApp Usage	1 week, starting from date after baseline survey completion	Participants were asked a series of questions daily related to their WhatsApp usage behaviors - in particular, their message-forwarding, personal chat and group chat behaviors.
Changes in fear with regards the COVID-19 situation across 1 week	1 week, starting from date after baseline survey completion	1 item each day on fear specifically of the COVID-19 situation (measured on a 4 point scale: min = 1, max = 4; higher scores indicating greater fear about the outbreak).

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Yale-NUS College; 🇸🇬 Singapore, Singapore