{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]],"date-time":"2026-08-03T17:54:55Z","timestamp":1785779695416,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]],"date-time":"2026-08-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785715200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Statistical misreasoning is a key mechanism through which anti-vaccine narratives distort scientific information and undermine public confidence in immunisation. Although prior research has examined thematic and ideological features of vaccine misinformation, little is known about the specific errors in numerical reasoning that shape users\u2019 interpretations of vaccine-related data.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A total of 597 Polish-language Facebook posts expressing anti-vaccine views and containing references to statistical information were analysed. Based on previous research on statistical cognition and an inductive review of the material, a coding scheme comprising ten categories of statistical misreasoning was developed and applied to all posts. Quantitative analyses were then conducted to examine how frequently these categories occurred and which combinations of errors appeared together.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The most prevalent forms of misreasoning were the correlation\u2013causation fallacy (70%, p\u2009&lt;\u20090.001) and base rate neglect (58%, p\u2009&lt;\u20090.001). Denominator neglect and cherry picking appeared in half of the posts, while the remaining categories were less frequent. Most posts contained multiple errors (median\u2009=\u20094), and the most common configuration involved the correlation\u2013causation fallacy, base rate neglect and denominator neglect. The distribution of error counts further showed that posts most often exhibited four distinct categories of misreasoning (23%), followed by three (19%) and five (17%), and overall a majority of posts (62%, p\u2009&lt;\u20090.001) contained between one and four different types of errors. Co-occurrence analysis revealed stable structural patterns, with the strongest association observed between denominator neglect and intuitive reasoning error (\u03d5\u2009=\u20090.23; p\u2009&lt;\u20090.001).<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Anti-vaccine discourse exhibits systematic patterns of statistical misreasoning that shape erroneous interpretations of vaccine-related data, highlighting the need to address cognitive and statistical misunderstandings through targeted public health communication.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0355341","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]],"date-time":"2026-08-03T17:22:56Z","timestamp":1785777776000},"page":"e0355341","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Statistical misreasoning in online content about vaccines: Implications and recommendations for addressing disinformation"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5652-4397","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Michal","family":"Ordak","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]]},"reference":[{"issue":"37","key":"pone.0355341.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1126\/sciadv.adh2132","article-title":"The efficacy of Facebook\u2019s vaccine misinformation policies and architecture during the COVID-19 pandemic","volume":"9","author":"DA Broniatowski","year":"2023","journal-title":"Sci Adv"},{"key":"pone.0355341.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"432","DOI":"10.14745\/ccdr.v46i1112a11","article-title":"Fake news and science denier attacks on vaccines. 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