 COVID-19 misinformation has become a big problem. Did you know that COVID-19 misinformation has been linked to thousands of hospitalizations and deaths from people refusing vaccines and experimenting with unverified treatments? Because of this, reducing the spread and impact of misinformation has become a priority for governments, scientists, and public health groups. Some of the most common strategies used to stop the spread of misinformation are to debunk false claims and encourage everyone to verify the information they see using credible sources. Myth-busting and fact-checking are important, but these strategies can only do so much. There is a lot of information about COVID-19 online. It's unrealistic to expect that everyone will be able to fact-check all of it all of the time. Our research team wants to find other ways to stop the spread of COVID-19 misinformation. In order to do that, we first need to better understand how and why people choose to engage with information about COVID-19 online. We asked, what factors influence why people engage or disengage with information related to COVID-19 online? We interviewed 18 Canadian adults about their experiences to find out. Our findings show that there is a complex web of factors that influence people's engagement with COVID-19 information. Some of these have to do with the personal preferences, interests, and habits of each person. For instance, many study participants explained that they engaged with a post about COVID-19 because it was eye-catching or because they found it funny. We call these factors individual factors because they have to do with personal interests and preferences. But we also found that people engage with COVID-19 information for a host of social reasons. For example, many people described engaging with COVID-19 information because it impacts someone they know or because of their pre-existing relationship with the person who posted. We also found that many people chose not to engage with COVID-19 information because they worried it might start an argument with friends or family. Many previous studies have drawn attention to the individual factors that shape how people engage with online information. We've found that social factors are equally important. Both of these should be considered when crafting COVID-19 messages. Understanding the social factors that influence how and why people engage with information can help researchers and public health communicators craft stronger COVID-19 messages, stronger messages that are engaging and impactful to the widest possible audience. For instance, these messages might connect personal choices and actions to family and community well-being, or they could highlight public health as a shared responsibility. Thanks for watching. You can find more details about this study in the published article linked in the video description. And if you like this, please share it with your friends.