There is an on-going epistemic crisis, what the WHO has called an “infodemic” that is a great challenge to public health.   Medical research can develop new life-saving treatments, but a lack of public trust in the evidence challenges widespread implementation. Our goal is to foster the spread of accurate scientific information, to spread trust in that scientific information, and to support the use of that information when making decisions.

Research on how to combat misinformation is widespread, but typically exists within disciplinary silos. The work examining how misinformation spreads, how it is supported by social institutions, and its effects on individuals are typically researched independently.

This node brings researchers together from across the university so our inter-disciplinary approach can be more than the sum of our parts.

We will develop methods to increase trust in the right information, and inoculate against misinformation.

• Professor Monika Bednarek
  
• Dr Jason Chin
• Professor Nick Enfield
• Dr Micah Goldwater (Node leader)
• Dr Joanne Gray
• Professor Judy Kay
• Associate Professor Sabina Kleitman
• Associate Professor Evan Livesey
• Associate Professor Tom van Laer
• Waheeb Yaqub, PhD candidate
• Dr Senuri Samalka Wijenayake
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External collaborators

• Dr Cecile Paris, CSIRO
• Professor Jennifer Byrne, NSW Health