{"id":15096,"date":"2024-02-05T00:46:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T00:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/05\/wellness-influencers-fueled-pandemic-misinformation-now-theyre-targeting-another-crisis\/"},"modified":"2024-02-05T00:46:13","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T00:46:13","slug":"wellness-influencers-fueled-pandemic-misinformation-now-theyre-targeting-another-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/05\/wellness-influencers-fueled-pandemic-misinformation-now-theyre-targeting-another-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Wellness influencers fueled pandemic misinformation. Now they\u2019re targeting another crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When wildfire ripped through Hawaii\u2019s Maui last August, the impact was devastating: a whole town reduced to ashes, more than 100 lives lost. The inferno was described as the \u201clargest natural disaster in state history.\u201d <\/p>\n

But some on Instagram suggested, without evidence, <\/strong>there was something much more nefarious at play. <\/p>\n

Wellness influencer @truth_crunchy_mama told her 37,000 followers to \u201cstop blaming things on nature that were actually caused by the government.\u201d They\u2019re \u201cgoing to keep setting wildfires until we all submit to their climate change agenda,\u201d she said in another post. <\/p>\n

Health influencer @drmercola suggested to his 504,000 followers whether, while the media focused on climate change, the fires might have been deliberately set to \u201cto facilitate a land grab\u201d to make the area a \u201csmart city\u201d \u2014 referring to a technology-focused urban design idea. <\/p>\n

A natural parenting influencer, whose Instagram page is filled with soft-focus pictures of herself against pretty pastel backgrounds, inferred to her 76,000-strong community that Hawaii\u2019s wildfires were started by \u201cdirected energy weapons\u201d \u2014 systems which use energy such as laser beams. <\/p>\n

These posters are all wellness influencers \u2014 a loosely-defined umbrella term for a wide range of accounts including yoga, lifestyle, fitness, alternative health and new age spirituality. <\/p>\n

While conspiracy theories about the Hawaii wildfires spread <\/strong>across the internet last year, it may seem surprising they were also seized upon by part of the wellness community. <\/p>\n

But for years there has been a merging of wellness, disinformation and conspiracy, as a subset of influencers use the backdrop of aesthetically pleasing, pastel-colored posts to spread much darker messages, weaving together alarming conspiracy theories with calls for users to buy their supplements or services. <\/p>\n

This phenomenon exploded during the pandemic, when anti-vax sentiment took hold in large parts of the wellness community. As interest in the pandemic waned, experts say some wellness influencers have latched on to climate change to galvanize followers. <\/p>\n

Their concern: Those influencers \u2014 some with hundreds of thousands of followers \u2014 are exposing new, and younger, audiences to a slew of misinformation and <\/strong>undermining efforts to tackle the climate crisis. <\/p>\n

Simmons, also a researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a UK-based think tank focused on disinformation, started digging. She pored over more than 150 wellness accounts, most of which had between 10,000 to 100,000 followers. All offered wellness advice, sold related products and promoted some form of misinformation. <\/p>\n

The claims Simmons found were sweeping and varied, ranging from outright climate denial to attempts to undermine climate solutions by portraying them as part of a global plot for control. <\/p>\n

Some focused on deadly extreme weather events, saying they were orchestrated by the government, or that malign global forces were modifying the weather. Others claimed climate policies were a plot to control people\u2019s lives, bodies and diets. A small section of new age accounts asserted that climate change was the result of a disconnection with forces in the universe. <\/p>\n

Rejecting climate action may seem counterintuitive for wellness influencers, who often focus on nature or evoke <\/strong>bucolic visions of the past. But when you have insight into this world, it tracks, Simmons said. <\/p>\n

A strong thread of individualism runs through wellness accounts, alongside a deep distrust of authorities. \u201cThey emphasize individual solutions to collective problems, and they sell wellness as a response to climate anxiety,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Some even say they accept the human-caused climate crisis. <\/p>\n

His climate posts are often framed in this way, not making definitive claims but rather asking questions like: Is the idea of eating insects \u201cpart of globalists\u2019 \u2018green agenda?\u2019\u201d Or advertising guest posts suggesting the \u201cwar on climate change\u201d follows \u201cthe same playbook used by nefarious individuals who lust for complete power over the citizens.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018Dangerous rhetoric\u2019<\/h2>\n

The wellness industry, depending on how its defined, is worth anything from many billions to trillions of dollars \u2014 $5.6 trillion, according to a recent report from industry group The Global Wellness Institute. <\/p>\n

And it\u2019s been decades in the making. Its modern incarnation goes back to the late 1950s, said Stephanie Alice Baker, who researches health and wellness cultures at City University in the UK. American doctor Halbert L. Dunn started to popularize the idea that health was more than simply the absence of disease; instead \u201cpeak wellness\u201d meant also finding purpose and meaning. <\/p>\n

The movement gained traction around the 1970s, then with the internet, came the entrepreneurs and influencers. Wellness has now come to mean almost anything, said Baker, but at its core it revolves around ideas of individualism, self-enlightenment and distrust of institutions \u2014 a near-perfect breeding ground for conspiracy theories to flourish. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the culture understood how dangerous the rhetoric in wellness spaces was until the pandemic,\u201d said Derek Beres, co-host of the podcast Conspirituality, which explores the collision between wellness and conspiracy theories. One researcher, Marc-Andr\u00e9 Argentino, coined the term \u201cpastel QAnon,\u201d to describe the soft, pleasing aesthetic used by some influencers to spread their conspiratorial worldview. <\/p>\n

Influencers crave relevance, said Callum Hood, head of research at the Center for Countering Digital Hate, and \u201cclimate change is a big relevant issue that\u2019s in the news all the time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Misinformation expert Tim Caulfield, a professor of health law and policy at the University of Alberta, said many wellness influencers are now expected to present a basket of beliefs that the community wants to hear. \u201cBeing anti-climate change becomes part of being on that team\u201d and a way to \u201cturbocharge your audience,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

It may seem easy to dismiss this subsection of wellness influencers, but the bonds they create with followers are strong. <\/p>\n

They are particularly good at creating intimacy, because they focus on people\u2019s bodies and direct experience of the world, said Baker. It forges a strong parasocial \u2014 or one-sided \u2014 connection, where followers believe they have a personal relationship with the influencer. Many project authenticity and present themselves as outside the system, able to speak truth to power, she added. <\/p>\n

The appeal of their conspiracy messages is clear, especially with a complex issue like climate change. It is a salve to anxiety and a chance to reclaim agency. \u201cOnce you find the conspiracy theory, it all collapses, it all becomes simplified. \u2018There\u2019s a bad guy who\u2019s lying to you,\u2019\u201d CCDH\u2019s Hood said. <\/strong> <\/p>\n

The anger fuels engagement, but how this translates to real-world impact is notoriously hard to pin down. <\/p>\n

Still, many experts think there is a significant effect. Climate misinformation is having \u201ca profound impact\u201d both on people\u2019s beliefs and on the normalization of fringe perspectives, Caulfield said. Not only does it <\/strong>undermine climate solutions, it also depoliticizes people, sowing distrust in climate policies. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s particularly worrying as it allows climate misinformation to reach new audiences, experts say, <\/strong>including young people that might otherwise be supportive of climate change action. <\/p>\n

Studies suggest younger generations are getting the majority of their news from platforms like Instagram, said Mariah Wellman, an assistant professor and wellness expert at the University of Illinois at Chicago. <\/p>\n

Countering misinformation<\/h2>\n

Extreme views can give influencers higher clicks, more audience and a more lucrative brand, Caulfield said, so the incentive is clear to steer towards those ideologies. \u201cAnd the sad thing is that, the more it becomes about ideology, the harder it is to change people\u2019s minds, because it is about belonging to a community.\u201d <\/p>\n

There are strategies to counter the misinformation, though. It\u2019s important to do it in a respectful and constructive way, even when it comes from influencers some may dismiss as \u201cfrivolous,\u201d Caulfield said. \u201cPre-bunking\u201d can also help, he added \u2014 getting out ahead of the misinformation, and <\/strong>making people aware of the tactics used to push it. <\/p>\n

For others, the focus is much more on the other platforms hosting these influencers. Hood is pushing for more clarity on climate policies, and for measures including bans on amplifying and monetizing content that clearly contradicts climate science. <\/p>\n

He also called on regulators to take a hard look at the products and services being sold on Instagram and other platforms. \u201cIt is the Wild West,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Meta, which owns Instagram, declined to comment. The company has policies to counter misinformation, including international teams of fact checkers which evaluate climate science content. When they rate posts as false, they can reduce distribution and add warning labels, and accounts that repeatedly offend can lose the ability to advertise or monetize. <\/p>\n

But for experts like Hood, there is simply not enough being done to tackle a problem with such alarming implications. <\/p>\n

As the climate crisis continues to fuel more frequent and more severe extreme weather events, it is creating perfect conditions for climate denial and misinformation to flourish across these parts of the wellness community. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe dark side of wellness has always been there. It\u2019s just now we see it,\u201d Simmons said. <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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