And if on “vaccinated” Internet users from misinformation? This is an innovative experiment undertaken by psychologists from the Universities of Cambridge and Bristol in partnership with Jigsaw, a division of Google. And surprisingly, the answer is yes. Specifically, the researchers created 90-second videos to educate Internet users about the most commonly used manipulation techniques, such as deliberate inconsistency, scapegoating, or even ad hominem attacks. Clips should be as entertaining as they are possible and borrow from pop culture titles like Star Wars or Family Guy.
Teach Internet Users to Recognize Disinformation
There are about 30 thousand in total. participants participated in this experiment. The idea is that by introducing a “micro-dose” of disinformation upstream, Internet users will be able to detect it and not be deceived in the future. This is the theory of inoculation, a concept often used by social psychologists. The results are very concrete: “Despite intense “noise” and distractions on YouTube, the ability to recognize the manipulation methods underlying disinformation increased by an average of 5%. This figure does not seem huge, but on the scale of all Internet users it is considerable. The researchers report that this effect works equally well for both progressive and conservative citizens. Stefan Lewandowski, a professor at the University of Bristol, explains: “Fact checkers can only debunk some of the lies circulating on the Internet. We need to teach people how to recognize the rules of the disinformation game so they know when they are being misled. Based on this very satisfactory result, the scientists believe that fake news recognition could improve drastically if this “vaccination” were extended to all platforms, and this at a relatively modest cost.
