Trust Under Pressure: Countering Misinformation in Health and Climate Emergencies

Recent crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate-related emergencies, and other public health threats have demonstrated the critical role of communication in shaping public understanding and behaviour. 

Alongside these crises, societies have experienced an “infodemic"—Infodemic an overabundance of information, including false, misleading, and contradictory content circulating through digital and physical environments. Infodemic can create confusion, promote risky behaviours, undermine trust in institutions and experts, and weaken collective responses to crises. 

The rapid expansion of digital communication platforms and social media has accelerated the spread of information, enabling both effective dissemination of evidence-based guidance and amplification of misinformation and conspiracy narratives. This workshop brings together experts in public health, science communication, journalism, psychology, and media studies to examine the relationship between trust, misinformation, conspiracy thinking, and crisis communication. 

Through interdisciplinary perspectives and practical case studies, participants will explore how misinformation emerges and spreads, why certain groups become susceptible to conspiracy narratives, and how institutions can communicate effectively under conditions of uncertainty.

Key themes include:

• Understanding the dynamics of infodemic during health and environmental
• crises;
• The role of trust in public institutions, science, and media;
• Psychological and social drivers of conspiracy thinking;
• Lessons learned from COVID-19 and other recent crises;
• Strategies for effective crisis and risk communication;
• Approaches to building societal resilience against misinformation;
• The responsibilities of journalists, scientists, policymakers, and digital platforms.

The workshop aims to foster dialogue between researchers and practitioners and to identify evidence-based approaches for strengthening public trust and resilience in an increasingly complex information environment.