8.7 Dr Lena Frischlich - Seeing isn’t Believing - Medicines in the Age of Misinformation

In this episode, we explore the challenging landscape of disinformation in healthcare with Associate Professor Dr. Lena Frischlich from the University of Southern Denmark.

Lena is co-director of the Center for Digital Democracy and an expert in media psychology and communication science. Her research focuses on the interplay between the digital realm, human cognition, and behavior—particularly how manipulative online communication like propaganda and disinformation impacts on what we believe about medicines and health.

Lena shares insights from her keynote at the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists Conference in Copenhagen in 2025, where she explained what makes people susceptible to misinformation and how healthcare providers can defend against it. With a background in clinical psychology and extensive research on online manipulation, she brings a unique perspective on why even intelligent, educated people fall for false information—and what we can do about it.

From understanding the psychology behind misinformation to practical strategies for combating it, this episode is essential listening for anyone working in healthcare or concerned about the spread of false medical information online.

For our micro-discussion we discuss the paper “Misrepresentation of semaglutide in social media” - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40682686/ - does it do a responsible job of presenting the risks versus the benefits…? 

We also discuss Bullshit. Or more specifically the paper “On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit” - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/judgment-and-decision-making/article/on-the-reception-and-detection-of-pseudoprofound-bullshit/0D3C87BCC238BCA38BC55E395BDC9999.  What is “Brandolini’s Law…?”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandolini%27s_law As with all of our guests, Lena shares with us her Memory Evoking Medicine, a career anthem and book. Rather uniquely, Lena hasn’t actually read the book she chooses but it makes Gimmo very happy nonetheless.

Prof Lena Frischlich Bio: Lena Frischlich (PhD in Psychology, University of Cologne) is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Digital Democracy at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU). Since 2026, she is also an external faculty member at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna. Before coming to Denmark, she served as an interim Professor for Communication at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich (2020-21 and 2023). Between 2018 and 2023, she led the junior research group “DemoRESILdigital: Democratic resilience in times of online-propaganda, fake news, fear and hate speech” at the University of Muenster, Germany. Frischlich researches the staging and effects of manipulation-oriented political online communication, including disinformation, conspiracy myths, and extremist propaganda and aims to understand how resilience against such manipulation attempts can be fostered. In her research, she combines quantitative and qualitative methods from empirical social sciences with computational measures (such as natural language processing and machine learning). Frischlich has published over 80 academic contributions, of which over 40 have appeared in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, including leading publications such as Digital Journalism, Social Media + Society, New Media & Society, and Current Opinions in Psychology. Since 2013, Frischlich has been (co-)PI on multiple third party-funded projects addressing manipulative online content and countermeasures. In the last five years alone, she has been a co-author on more than 50 academic papers and has been invited to give more than 30 talks and keynotes to different audiences. In 2023, her research was rewarded with the Sponsorship Award of the University of Münster Society for Early Career Scholars. In 2020, she was elected to the prestigious Young Colleagues of the North-Rhine Westphalian Academy of Sciences and the Arts. Frischlich is also part of the Santa Fe Institute's global counter-balance speaker series, an applied seminar series that brings together international experts studying cyberhate, misinformation, social polarization, and counter-speech. Since 2021, Frischlich has served as spokesperson of the Media Psychological Division of the German Psychological Association. She is an associate editor at Media and Communication and Digital Journalism and has been a guest editor at Digital Journalism, Media and Communication, and Studies in Media and Communication. Currently, she co-edits a special issue on the politics of misinformation at the Journal of Elections, Public Opinions, and Parties. She is an ad-hoc reviewer for over 30 academic journals and several national and international funding organisations. In 2024, she was elected to the commission of the Centre for Advanced Internet Studies. Frischlich is a popular speaker who has provided talks to various audiences, including the Federal Bank of Germany, the European Congress of Hospital Pharmacists, and the MediaTech Festival organised by the journalistic Media City Odense. She was also an invited expert for a session on disinformation as part of the North Rhine-Westphalian Parliament's inquiry commission on the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Frischlich is a member of the International Panel on the information environment and the European Knowledge Hub on Radicalisation. 

From Prescription to Ocean — A TEDx Talk by Jamie Hayes We’re incredibly proud to share that Aural Apothecary co-host Jamie Hayes has taken to the TEDx stage with a thought-provoking talk:  Prescription to Ocean: The Hidden Impact of Medicines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swCLNaAG5qY Jamie explores a fascinating and urgent question: What happens to our medicines once they leave the prescription pad — and how do they impact the world beyond the patient? It’s a journey that connects healthcare, the environment, and our shared responsibility for the future. You’ll never think about prescribing (or taking) medicines in quite the same way again. Please take a few minutes to watch, reflect, and share — this is a conversation worth having.

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