False beliefs are common in neurodegenerative disorders, particularly dementia with Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia. People hold beliefs with varying levels of truth. Neurological Mechanisms for False Beliefs Studies of neurodegenerative disorders that target selective brain networks shed light on the neural mechanisms that underlie the creation and sustenance of beliefs that are not based in reality. Individuals are organized to hold beliefs and to evaluate their merit based on facts and experiences. How does low science literacy cause otherwise rational and competent people to misunderstand the threat of COVID-19 and allow them to feel more comfortable with false data than with scientifically sound information? Beliefs grounded in false information, just like those grounded in truth, have neural origins and reflect connections in dedicated brain circuits. In a study that included 9654 US adults, 48% of those who had a high school education or less believed there was some truth to the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was planned but only 15% among those with some postgraduate training endorsed this idea. In 2015, in a survey of 11 000 12th-grade students who took the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science assessment, only 22% were proficient or better in science, and 40% were rated as having “below basic knowledge.” 3 Education matters.
Also, communications by scientists changed as they learned about the infectivity and virulence of COVID-19, exacerbating mistrust of scientists by some.
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