Fake News Vaccine

A NEW ONLINE EXPERIMENT AIMS TO HELP ‘INOCULATE’ AGAINST DISINFORMATION BY PROVIDING A SMALL DOSE OF PERSPECTIVE FROM A “FAKE NEWS TYCOON”. A PILOT STUDY HAS SHOWN SOME EARLY SUCCESS IN BUILDING RESISTANCE TO FAKE NEWS AMONG TEENAGERS

A new online game puts players in the shoes of an aspiring propagandist to give the public a taste of the techniques and motivations behind the spread of disinformation – potentially “inoculating” them against the influence of so-called fake news in the process.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have already shown that briefly exposing people to tactics used by fake news producers can act as a “psychological vaccine” against bogus anti-science campaigns. While the previous study focused on disinformation about climate science, the new online game is an experiment in providing “general immunity” against the wide range of fake news that has infected public debate.

The game encourages players to stoke anger, mistrust and fear in the public by manipulating digital news and social media within the simulation.

Players build audiences for their fake news sites by publishing polarising falsehoods, deploying twitter bots, photo-shopping evidence, and inciting conspiracy theories in the wake of public tragedy – all while maintaining a “credibility score” to remain as persuasive as possible. A pilot study conducted with teenagers in a Dutch high school used an early paper-and-pen trial of the game, and showed the perceived “reliability” of fake news to be diminished in those that played compared to a control group. The research and education project, a collaboration between Cambridge researchers and Dutch media collective DROG, has launched a version of the game online at www. fakenewsgame.org.