CHICAGO, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- People who get news from social media are more likely to believe misinformation about coronavirus conspiracies, risk factors and preventative treatments, according to a survey on Americans' attitudes and behaviors around COVID-19 conducted by several U.S. universities.

Of the 21,000 individuals surveyed across the nation between Aug. 7 and 26, 28 percent of Snapchat users, 23 percent of Instagram users and 25 percent of Wikipedia users believed inaccurate claims about COVID-19, according to the survey by researchers from the university consortium among Northwestern, Harvard, Northeastern and Rutgers.

Of the 8 percent surveyed who received news from Facebook Messenger in the previous 24 hours, 26 percent were likely to believe a false claim; for the 4 percent who used WhatsApp, it was 31 percent. In contrast, the lowest levels of misperceptions emerged for those who received news about the pandemic from local television news, news websites or apps, and community newspapers, 11 percent in each case, showed the survey, which was posted on the website of Northwestern Univerity (NU) on Wednesday.

"The results confirm the initial fears that social media would contribute to misinformation about COVID-19. This misinformation may in turn have dire consequences when it comes to individual behaviors and group attributions," said James Druckman, a professor of political science at NU's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

The researchers asked whether people believed 11 false claims about COVID-19: six about conspiracies or risk factors and five about preventative treatments that have circulated online since the beginning of the pandemic. Between 7 percent and 22 percent of respondents indicated their beliefs in one of the false claims.

Additional findings showed those under age 45 were most likely to believe false claims, with older ages less likely. Those under age 25 had an 18-percent chance of believing a false claim, with people aged 25-44, 45-64 and above 65 having a probability of 17 percent, 12 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

The survey found a strong relationship between believing misinformation and wearing a mask. For 8 out of the 11 false claims, respondents who believe one of the claims were less likely to follow mask-wearing guidelines "very closely," compared to those who do not believe the false claim or are uncertain.