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PROJECT
DESIVE²
PROJECT NAME
Understanding Disinformation Behaviour
Overview
Funding programme / Funder:
Project duration:
Contact:
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) – Project “Agile Research: Identifying and Combating Digital Disinformation Campaigns” Funding reference: 16KIS1530
01.10.2021 – 31.12.2024
Dr Juliane Stiller
Short Description
In the BMBF collaborative project DESIVE², Grenzenlos Digital e.V. served as sub-project lead, investigating how people respond to health disinformation that appears scientifically credible — why they share, ignore, question, or pass on such information. Drawing on an app-based diary study, standardised surveys, and qualitative analyses, a model of health information processing and sharing was developed that describes the situational, emotional, and social factors shaping information behaviour.
Project goals
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Qualitative investigation of how people encounter and respond to apparently scientific health disinformation in everyday life
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Identification of typical situations and triggers in the handling of false information (Critical Incidents)
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Characterisation of scientific disinformation and its pathways of emergence
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Development of an empirically grounded, practice-oriented model of disinformation behaviour
Methodology
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App-based diary study conducted in two rounds (March 2023 – January 2024) with a total of 163 participants
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Three standardised surveys per participant at the beginning, middle, and end of the study period
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Qualitative analysis following Grounded Theory principles, evaluated using MAXQDA
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Critical Incident analysis to identify typical information situations
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Data triangulation: app data, surveys, and semi-structured interviews (conducted by Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
Project description
Grenzenlos Digital e.V. led work packages AP5 (app-based surveys and self-reports) and AP7 (model development) within the collaborative project, and was substantially involved in AP4 (Critical Incident analysis).
In AP5, the data collection instruments were designed, pre-tested, carried out across two rounds, and evaluated. The goal was to capture everyday situations in which people receive, share, or deliberately withhold health information. Participants could submit situations in various formats — as text, image, screenshot, or voice recording — and answered standardised questions about the type of information, its source, the channel used, and their own assessment of it.
In AP7, the findings from all empirical modules, Critical Incident analyses, app data, and interviews, were systematically brought together and condensed into an integrative model of disinformation behaviour.
Access to project material
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Documentation, research data, presentations and publications Open Access on Zenodo
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The final project report has been submitted to TIB Hannover for publication and will soon be available there with a DOI. Please contact us if you are interested.
Project description
Model of health information processing and sharing The central output of the sub-project is an empirically developed model describing how people perceive, evaluate, and respond to health information. Information processing begins with individual reflection — a typically rapid, emotionally shaped assessment of the relevance and quality of the information. This leads to five possible types of action: evaluating, researching, ignoring, sharing, and discussing. The first two belong to individual reflection; the latter two mark the transition to social interaction. The model demonstrates that how people handle health information is shaped less by the objective properties of the information than by situational factors such as emotional states, social relationships, and individual assessment mechanisms.
Classification of scientific false information A differentiated classification distinguishing between misinformation (unintentionally false), disinformation (deliberately misleading), and apparently scientific disinformation (pseudoscience, fake science). Reception-based distortions — through spin, decontextualisation, or omission — can affect any form of originally correct information. → DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15295898
Catalogue of Critical Incidents A systematic catalogue of 23 typical situations in which people encounter health-related (mis)information — coded along the dimensions of person, information, and context.
Framework model for the reception of retracted publications An analytical framework for describing the public reception of scientific retractions, with four central categories: object of reception, publication characteristics, news article characteristics, and community of reception characteristics. → Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/10105890
Publications
Peer-reviewed articles and conference contributions
Dewitz, L., Stiller, J. & Peters, I. (2022). Fake scientific provenance as a driver for disinformation – Peoples' disinformation behavior in health contexts. ASIS&T 24h Global Conference 2022. → DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6412078
Trkulja, V., Bressel, P., Dewitz, L., Henkel, M. & Stiller, J. (2022). Disinformation in the context of health information behaviour. ISIC, Berlin. → DOI: https://doi.org/10.18452/25291
Stiller, J., Terner, S. & Trkulja, V. (2023). Investigating Scientific Misinformation Originating from Retracted Publications and Their Perception. ASIS&T 2023, 60: 1134–1136. → DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.969
Stiller, J. & Trkulja, V. (2023). Teilen von Gesundheits(falsch)informationen – Erste Ergebnisse einer Studie mit Selbstauskünften und Umfragen. ISI 2023, Chur. → DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15148371
Dewitz, L., Stiller, J. & Trkulja, V. (2023). Von Wissenschaft zu Falschinformation – Wie verbreitet sich wissenschaftliche Falschinformation zu Gesundheitsthemen? ISI 2023, Chur. → DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15148459
Stiller, J., Trkulja, V., Dewitz, L., Peters, I., Henkel, M. & Bressel, P. (2023). Wissenschaftliche Falschinformation: Erforschung von Faktoren der Verbreitung im Gesundheitsbereich. In: Daten-Fairness in einer globalisierten Welt, Bd. 2, S. 319–342. Nomos. → DOI: https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748938743
Stiller, J. & Trkulja, V. (2025). True, False, or Uncertain? Understanding Health (Dis)Information Processing, Sharing and Assessment. ISI 2025, Chemnitz. → DOI: https://zenodo.org/records/14925624
Research data and documentation
Jacob, A., Perrey, L., Henkel, M., Stiller, J. & Trkulja, V. (2024). DESIVE² survey data (rounds 1 and 2). Zenodo. → DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13221729
Stiller, J. & Trkulja, V. (2025). Codebuch – Projekt „Desinformationsverhalten Verstehen". Zenodo.
→ DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15295766
Stiller, J. & Trkulja, V. (2025). 2. Runde App-Studie – Auswertung der Situationsbeschreibungen. Zenodo. → DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15296064
Stiller, J., Trkulja, V., Henkel, M. & Peters, I. (2025). Dokumentation – Entstehung wissenschaftlicher Falschinformation und ihrer Typen. Zenodo.
Partner organisations
ZBW – Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft
The NEZ is the district volunteer agency in Neukölln. We support engagement by volunteers, organisations, and businesses.
Institut für Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft
HU Berlin conducted the semi-structured interviews and made a substantial contribution to the model development process.
Funding
