scholarly journals The HCT Index: a typology and index of health conspiracy theories with examples of use

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 196
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Stubbersfield ◽  
Tom Widger ◽  
Andrew J. Russell ◽  
Jamshid J. Tehrani
Keyword(s):  
Group Discussion ◽  
Health It ◽  
Web Searches ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Typical Experience ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Medical Side

Background: Conspiracy theories regarding vaccination programmes, medical side effects, and cover-ups by governments or pharmaceutical companies are prevalent in many countries and have highly detrimental and far-reaching effects on people’s wellbeing. For research and policymaking in public health, it is vital to understand the nature, construction and dissemination of these health conspiracy theories (HCTs). Inspired by tale typologies developed in folkloristics, this paper presents a typology and index of international HCTs as a tool for researchers to identify and categorise the HCTs they come across, and to provide a pool of examples of HCTs which could be used in various fields of research. To illustrate this, two studies are also presented (Study 1 and Study 2). Methods: HCTs were collected from relevant academic literature, news journalism, a survey of known health-related, general conspiracy theorist websites, and web searches based around known HCTs. From this, 14 core types were identified, and a numbered index was constructed with brief descriptions, examples, and motifs. Study 1 is a survey of HCT exposure and belief in the UK. Study 2 is a focus group discussion of health rumours in rural Sri Lanka including discussion of HCTs. Results: The HCT Index provides valuable insights into the international dissemination of HCTs. Study 1 found that familiarity with and belief in HCTs were high: 97% of Britons are familiar with at least one HCT and 49% of Britons believed that at least one HCT was likely to be true. Study 2 highlighted concerns over threats to fertility and about how to verify information that falls outside of typical experience. Conclusions: The HCT Index provides a useful framework for future cross-cultural research. As a typology it encompasses a wide range of beliefs which can be more effectively categorized and compared and, ultimately, challenged.

scholarly journals The HCT Index: A Typology and Index of Health Conspiracy Theories with examples of use

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Michael Stubbersfield ◽  
Tom Widger ◽  
Andrew Russell ◽  
Jamshid J. Tehrani
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Health It ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Government ◽  
Typical Experience ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Research And Policy

Conspiracy theories about secret agendas behind vaccination programmes, the side effects of medical treatments, and cover-ups by the government or pharmaceutical industry are prevalent in many countries, and can have highly detrimental and far-reaching effects on people’s wellbeing. For, research and policy-making in public health, it is therefore vital to understand the nature, construction and dissemination of these health conspiracy theories (HCTs). Inspired by the influential ATU index of folktale types, this paper presents a typology and example index of international HCTs to be used as a tool to enable researchers to identify and categorise HCTs they come across, and to provide a pool of examples of HCTs which could be used in various fields of research. Also presented are two studies which used the HCT Index as a source of material. The first, a survey of HCT exposure and belief in the UK found that both familiarity and belief were high: 97% of Britons are familiar (having heard the same or similar before) with at least one HCT and 49% of Britons believed that at least one HCT was likely to be true. Demographic influences are also discussed. The second study, a focus group discussion health rumours in rural Sri Lanka, found concerns over threats to fertility as well as how to verify information that falls outside of typical experience.

scholarly journals What drives beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories? The role of psychotic-like experiences and confinement-related factors

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simão Pedro Rodrigues Ferreira ◽  
Carlos Campos ◽  
Beatriz Monteiro Marinho ◽  
Susana Rocha ◽  
Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Economy ◽  
Affective States ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Effective Dissemination ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs

The COVID-19 pandemic is a worldwide threat to public health and the global economy. The climate of fear and uncertainty associated with the pandemic has fostered the emergence of a wide-range of COVID-19 conspiracy theories that has the potential do shape public opinion and hinder the effective dissemination of valid information. Beliefs in conspiracy theories has been associated with maladaptive personality traits such as schizotypy and paranoia, as well as other non-psychotic psychological characteristics (e.g., social isolation, stress). The current study aimed to examine the association between beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories and psychotic-like experiences within the community, while also addressing the role of sociodemographic information, psychological outcomes (e.g., stress, affective states) and other pandemic-related factors (e.g., confinement conditions/behaviors). Our results suggest that psychotic-like experiences are associated with beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, particularly perceptual abnormalities and persecutory ideation. Moreover, increased health-related concerns and reduced education levels also seem to be liability factors for these conspiracy beliefs. These results add important insights into how the adherence to illogical and erroneous disease-related arguments may be contingent to proneness to psychotic-like experiences. COVID-19 conspiracy theories are yet another major challenge that governments and policy makers must contemplate when defining strategic directions to manage the current and future pandemics.

scholarly journals Recognising values and engaging communities across cultures: towards developing a cultural protocol for researchers

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakhshi Memon ◽  
◽  
Muqaddas Asif ◽  
Ameer B. Khoso ◽  
Sehrish Tofique ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Engagement ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Individual Autonomy ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
University College London ◽  
The Uk

AbstractEfforts to build research capacity and capability in low and middle income countries (LMIC) has progressed over the last three decades, yet it confronts many challenges including issues with communicating or even negotiating across different cultures. Implementing global research requires a broader understanding of community engagement and participatory research approaches. There is a considerable amount of guidance available on community engagement in clinical trials, especially for studies for HIV/AIDS, even culturally specific codes for recruiting vulnerable populations such as the San or Maori people. However, the same cannot be said for implementing research in global health. In an effort to build on this work, the Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning and University College London in the UK sought to better understand differences in beliefs, values and norms of local communities in Pakistan. In particular, they have sought to help researchers from high income countries (HIC) understand how their values are perceived and understood by the local indigenous researchers in Pakistan. To achieve this end, a group discussion was organised with indigenous researchers at Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning. The discussion will ultimately help inform the development of a cultural protocol for researchers from HIC engaging with communities in LMIC. This discussion revealed five common themes; (1) religious principles and rules, (2) differing concepts of and moral emphasis on autonomy and privacy, (3) importance of respect and trust; (4) cultural differences (etiquette); (5) custom and tradition (gift giving and hospitality). Based on the above themes, we present a preliminary cultural analysis to raise awareness and to prepare researchers from HIC conducting cross cultural research in Pakistan. This is likely to be particularly relevant in collectivistic cultures where social interconnectedness, family and community is valued above individual autonomy and the self is not considered central to moral thinking. In certain cultures, HIC ideas of individual autonomy, the notion of informed consent may be regarded as a collective family decision. In addition, there may still be acceptance of traditional professional roles such as ‘doctor knows best’, while respect and privacy may have very different meanings.

ORAL HISTORY SOURCES AS LEARNING MATERIALS: A CASE STUDY OF THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-93
Author(s):  
Gugulethu Shamaine Nkala ◽  
Rodreck David
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Learning Material ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
National Archives ◽  
National University ◽  
Set Up

Knowledge presented by Oral History (OH) is unique in that it shares the tacit perspective, thoughts, opinions and understanding of the interviewee in its primary form. While teachers, lecturers and other education specialists have at their disposal a wide range of primary, secondary and tertiary sources upon which to relate and share or impart knowledge, OH presents a rich source of information that can improve the learning and knowledge impartation experience. The uniqueness of OH is presented in the following advantages of its use: it allows one to learn about the perspectives of individuals who might not otherwise appear in the historical record; it allows one to compensate for the digital age; one can learn different kinds of information; it provides historical actors with an opportunity to tell their own stories in their own words; and it offers a rich opportunity for human interaction. This article discusses the placement of oral history in the classroom set-up by investigating its use as a source of learning material presented by the National Archives of Zimbabwe to students in the Department of Records and Archives Management at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST). Interviews and a group discussion were used to gather data from an archivist at the National Archives of Zimbabwe, lecturers and students in the Department of Records and Archives Management at NUST, respectively. These groups were approached on the usability, uniqueness and other characteristics that support this type of knowledge about OH in a tertiary learning experience. The findings indicate several qualities that reflect the richness of OH as a teaching source material in a classroom set-up. It further points to weak areas that may be addressed where the source is considered a viable strategy for knowledge sharing and learning. The researchers present a possible model that can be used to champion the use of this rich knowledge source in classroom education at this university and in similar set-ups. 

ESRC Review

2020 ◽  
pp. 657-698
Author(s):  
Simeon J. Yates ◽  
Jordana Blejmar
Keyword(s):  
Social Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Levels Of Automation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Technological World ◽  
Ways Of Being

Two workshops were part of the final steps in the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) commissioned Ways of Being in a Digital Age project that is the basis for this Handbook. The ESRC project team coordinated one with the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (ESRC-DSTL) Workshop, “The automation of future roles”; and one with the US National Science Foundation (ESRC-NSF) Workshop, “Changing work, changing lives in the new technological world.” Both workshops sought to explore the key future social science research questions arising for ever greater levels of automation, use of artificial intelligence, and the augmentation of human activity. Participants represented a wide range of disciplinary, professional, government, and nonprofit expertise. This chapter summarizes the separate and then integrated results. First, it summarizes the central social and economic context, the method and project context, and some basic definitional issues. It then identifies 11 priority areas needing further research work that emerged from the intense interactions, discussions, debates, clustering analyses, and integration activities during and after the two workshops. Throughout, it summarizes how subcategories of issues within each cluster relate to central issues (e.g., from users to global to methods) and levels of impacts (from wider social to community and organizational to individual experiences and understandings). Subsections briefly describe each of these 11 areas and their cross-cutting issues and levels. Finally, it provides a detailed Appendix of all the areas, subareas, and their specific questions.

Punk as Folk: Continuities and Tensions in the UK and Beyond

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pete Dale
Keyword(s):  
Folk Music ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Collective Creativity ◽  
Living Tradition ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk

Numerous claims have been made by a wide range of commentators that punk is somehow “a folk music” of some kind. Doubtless there are several continuities. Indeed, both tend to encourage amateur music-making, both often have affiliations with the Left, and both emerge at least partly from a collective/anti-competitive approach to music-making. However, there are also significant tensions between punk and folk as ideas/ideals and as applied in practice. Most obviously, punk makes claims to a “year zero” creativity (despite inevitably offering re-presentation of at least some existing elements in every instance), whereas folk music is supposed to carry forward a tradition (which, thankfully, is more recognized in recent decades as a subject-to-change “living tradition” than was the case in folk’s more purist periods). Politically, meanwhile, postwar folk has tended more toward a socialist and/or Marxist orientation, both in the US and UK, whereas punk has at least rhetorically claimed to be in favor of “anarchy” (in the UK, in particular). Collective creativity and competitive tendencies also differ between the two (perceived) genre areas. Although the folk scene’s “floor singer” tradition offers a dispersal of expressive opportunity comparable in some ways to the “anyone can do it” idea that gets associated with punk, the creative expectation of the individual within the group differs between the two. Punk has some similarities to folk, then, but there are tensions, too, and these are well worth examining if one is serious about testing out the common claim, in both folk and punk, that “anyone can do it.”

scholarly journals Genetic, lifestyle, and health-related characteristics of adults without celiac disease who follow a gluten-free diet: a population-based study of 124,447 participants

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas J Littlejohns ◽  
Amanda Y Chong ◽  
Naomi E Allen ◽  
Matthew Arnold ◽  
Kathryn E Bradbury ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Celiac Disease ◽  
Genome Wide Association Study ◽  
Population Based ◽  
Gluten Free Diet ◽  
Hospital Inpatient ◽  
Gluten Free ◽  
A Genome ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Reported Health

ABSTRACT Background The number of gluten-free diet followers without celiac disease (CD) is increasing. However, little is known about the characteristics of these individuals. Objectives We address this issue by investigating a wide range of genetic and phenotypic characteristics in association with following a gluten-free diet. Methods The cross-sectional association between lifestyle and health-related characteristics and following a gluten-free diet was investigated in 124,447 women and men aged 40–69 y from the population-based UK Biobank study. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of following a gluten-free diet was performed. Results A total of 1776 (1.4%) participants reported following a gluten-free diet. Gluten-free diet followers were more likely to be women, nonwhite, highly educated, living in more socioeconomically deprived areas, former smokers, have lost weight in the past year, have poorer self-reported health, and have made dietary changes as a result of illness. Conversely, these individuals were less likely to consume alcohol daily, be overweight or obese, have hypertension, or use cholesterol-lowering medication. Participants with hospital inpatient diagnosed blood and immune mechanism disorders (OR: 1.62; 95% CI: 1.18, 2.21) and non-CD digestive system diseases (OR: 1.58; 95% CI: 1.42, 1.77) were more likely to follow a gluten-free diet. The GWAS demonstrated that no genetic variants were associated with being a gluten-free diet follower. Conclusions Gluten-free diet followers have a better cardiovascular risk profile than non-gluten-free diet followers but poorer self-reported health and a higher prevalence of blood and immune disorders and digestive conditions. Reasons for following a gluten-free diet warrant further investigation.

scholarly journals An exploration of migrant women’s perceptions of public health messages to reduce stillbirth in the UK: a qualitative study

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomasina Stacey ◽  
Melanie Haith-Cooper ◽  
Nisa Almas ◽  
Charlotte Kenyon
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Perinatal Mortality ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Health Messages ◽  
Migrant Women ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Public Health Messages ◽  
Associated Risk Factors ◽  
The Uk

Abstract Background Stillbirth is a global public health priority. Within the United Kingdom, perinatal mortality disproportionately impacts Black, Asian and minority ethnic women, and in particular migrant women. Although the explanation for this remains unclear, it is thought to be multidimensional. Improving perinatal mortality is reliant upon raising awareness of stillbirth and its associated risk factors, as well as improving maternity services. The aim of this study was to explore migrant women’s awareness of health messages to reduce stillbirth risk, and how key public health messages can be made more accessible. Method Two semi-structured focus groups and 13 one to one interviews were completed with a purposive sample of 30 migrant women from 18 countries and across 4 NHS Trusts. Results Participants provided an account of their general awareness of stillbirth and recollection of the advice they had been given to reduce the risk of stillbirth both before and during pregnancy. They also suggested approaches to how key messages might be more effectively communicated to migrant women. Conclusions Our study highlights the complexity of discussing stillbirth during pregnancy. The women in this study were found to receive a wide range of advice from family and friends as well as health professionals about how to keep their baby safe in pregnancy, they recommended the development of a range of resources to provide clear and consistent messages. Health professionals, in particular midwives who have developed a trusting relationship with the women will be key to ensuring that public health messages relating to stillbirth reduction are accessible to culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

scholarly journals Redefining peer learning: Role of student entrepreneurs in teaching entrepreneurship in the UK higher education context

2021 ◽  
pp. 095042222110126
Author(s):  
Stella Xu ◽  
Zimu Xu ◽  
Fujia Li ◽  
Arun Sukumar
Keyword(s):  
Student Engagement ◽  
Course Design ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
School Students ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Student Entrepreneurs ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Uk Higher Education

Entrepreneurship-related modules have become increasingly popular over the years, not only among business school students but also among those from other disciplines, including engineering and the arts and humanities. In some circumstances, they are offered as optional modules for students across different faculties and disciplines. While it is beneficial to mix students with different backgrounds, bringing in a wide range of perspectives, there are also challenges relating to course design and student engagement. With these challenges in mind, the authors trialled a new approach in the hope of motivating students from diverse academic and socio-cultural backgrounds to engage more fully in the classroom by utilising student entrepreneurs as guest speakers. The student-centric approach has proved effective in enhancing student engagement, as evidenced by both informal and formal feedback.

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