Quick Hits
Daily brief research updates from the cognitive sciences
Wouldn’t it be great in the current world if we could inoculate people against misinformation. Sigh! But that will never happen. Wait, you say, it can happen, it is possible, it works! Oh, please tell me more!
Yes, very good news on the misinformation wars.
So, what is this inoculation and how does it work?
Teams of scientists from the University of Cambridge and Bristol behind the Inoculation Science project collaborated with Jigsaw a unit within Google dedicated to tackling threats to open societies.
After conducting seven different experiments with 30’000 participants, they found that viewing a single clip increases awareness of misinformation. The videos introduce concepts from the “misinformation playbook” and includes relatable examples from popular film and TV.
This information is effective for all populations groups and political groupings – simply because most people don’t want to be manipulated. Rather than state opinions the videos are neutral just showing the tricks that are used to manipulate people and this is why they are so effective.
So how can this be spread to the world at large. Well, easily, through YouTube with over 2 billion users worldwide. Google owns YouTube and plans to start a roll out a wave of prebunking programmes in Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech republic targeted at emerging disinformation on Ukrainian refugees.
However, the effect is consistent and large compared to other effects such as brand awareness after advertising, but it is only a 5% increase – nothing to be sniffed at but still a long way to go.
Nevertheless, good news, and I hope they get this rolled out in other areas soon. The world needs more prebunking!
Andy Habermacher
Andy is author of leading brains Review, Neuroleadership, and multiple other books. He has been intensively involved in writing and research into neuroleadership and is considered one of Europe’s leading experts. He is also a well-known public speaker, speaking on the brain and human behaviour.
Andy is also a masters athlete (middle distance running) and competes regularly at international competitions (and holds a few national records in his age category).
Reference
Jon Roozenbeek, Sander van der Linden, Beth Goldberg, Steve Rathje, Stephan Lewandowsky.
Psychological inoculation improves resilience against misinformation on social media.
Science Advances, 2022; 8 (34)
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abo6254
More Quick Hits
Your brain on near-death experiences
Near-death experiences have fascinated many people ever since they have been reported. And these experiences guide our view of how we die: the memories of your life passing in front of your eyes, the tunnel of light, the floating movement towards a bright light....
Social networks grow your brain
The headline is a bit “click baity” but it is what a group of researchers found. To be more specific they found in macaques (cute monkeys) in the wild that having more grooming partners grew different regions of the brain. Grooming is the primate version of having a...
What do creative brains look like?
We’d probably all be happy to be a bit more creative — though research into our own opinions show that many people do actually consider themselves to be above average in creativity. An obvious self-bias. This is where scientists who study creativity come in and find...
New gender biases discovered
There have been many studies on gender biases, and I have followed, written, and spoken about many of these biases over the years (over a decade actually) but two studies have just come out that caught my eye. One out of New York University focused on gender natural...
Growth of your brain over your life
So, we all know that our brain grows very quickly as babies and children and then after a certain age, younger than some of us may like to think, there begins a slow decline. But precisely what and how is the question. Well, this is a question that an international...
How to reduce loneliness
I have reported multiple times on loneliness during the pandemic – mostly because interest and research into loneliness has taken a large uptick. I have also reported on how to combat this and was happy to see that a piece of research just out proved what I had...