Moving people forward: Assoc Prof Kim Hye Kyung

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, misinformation on the coronavirus disease spread online like wildfire. While fake news affected people’s perception of the disease, the extent to which it impacted them could depend on their cultural background.

A research team led by Assoc Prof Kim Hye Kyung, Associate Chair (Academic) at NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, conducted a study on people from Singapore, South Korea and the United States.

Overall, the team found that respondents were more likely to avoid reading more about COVID-19 after they were exposed to misleading information about the disease – but the extent differed between countries.

People in South Korea were most likely to steer clear of learning further about COVID-19, but those in Singapore were least likely to do so.

“Our findings showed that it’s important to prevent people from becoming exposed to fake news,” says Assoc Prof Kim. “But the study also suggests that the approaches we take might have to differ from country to country because of cultural differences in the way people process and respond to misinformation.”

Understanding how to tailor strategies for addressing health misinformation across different countries is not only a key focus of Assoc Prof Kim’s research, but also a consideration she brings to her role as a senior advisor to the Nature Medicine Commission on Quality Health Information for All. Supported by the journal, Nature Medicine, the commission seeks to enhance public health literacy, improve access to reliable health information and mitigate the impact of health misinformation.

In developing strategies to counter fake health news, Assoc Prof Kim is also keen to know why people are reluctant to trust credible health information. She became intrigued with health misinformation after seeing dubious claims on preventing COVID-19 infection circulating online at the start of the outbreak.

“There’s so much misinformation now that it’s one of the biggest challenges in health communications,” she adds. “As a researcher and educator, I believe we need to find better ways to educate the public on discerning the quality of the information they come across.”

The article appeared first in NTU's research & innovation magazine Pushing Frontiers (issue #25, August 2025).