Chapter 3. Stopping Negative Actions
Breaking: “FBI Agent Suspected in Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead of Apparent Murder-Suicide"
It’s on NPR.1 It’s been talked about all over the internet. It’s also completely fake.
Such news stories are often really interesting: they excite our emotions, confirm our suspicions, and help us see that other people like us are out there who “get it.” In other words, they build on nondeliberative “fast” thinking from System 1, deploy confirmation bias, and leverage social proof and other behavioral techniques. It’s no wonder that people trust these fake news stories, forward them to others, and start to integrate them into their view of the world.
What can be done about it?2 Researchers Sander van der Linden and Jon Roozenbeek developed a psychological vaccine called Get Bad News, building on a body of research known as cognitive inoculation theory. Get Bad News is an online game in which players try to create a fake news website and build a base of loyal followers by using the tactics of actual fake-news purveyors. By experiencing fake news tactics in a controlled environment where participants can see how they work without being duped by them, people can become inoculated against the real thing. In van der Linden and Roozenbeek’s research, they tested the platform with 15,000 participants and found that people could better spot (and resist) fake news because of it.3
Qatar’s B4Development Foundation and Nudge Lebanon partnered with van der Linden ...
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