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A guest essay by misinformation researcher, Matthew Facciani
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Welcome back.
And welcome to the internet, a place where our newsfeeds are constantly flooded with an endless stream of content and opinions, making it difficult to discern fact from fiction.
What can we do to combat misinformation in a time where democracy seems to be teetering on the edge of destruction?
This week, guest writer and misinformation researcher, Matthew Facciani is bringing you some evidence-based strategies you can take to actively fight against misinformation.
Use them wisely.
Iām Quinn Emmett, and this is science for people who give a shit.
Every week, I help 38,244+ humans understand and unfuck the rapidly changing world around us. It feels great, and weād love for you to join us.
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Strategies for the Misinformation Era
![]() | By Matthew Facciani Matthew is a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Notre Dame in the Computer Science and Engineering Department. His research interests include media literacy, identities, social networks, political polarization, and misinformation. His forthcoming book, Misguided: Where Misinformation Starts, How it Spreads, and What To Do About It will be published with Columbia University Press. |
In today's digital whirlwind of tweets, posts, and endless newsfeeds, separating fact from fiction can feel overwhelming.
No matter how sharp we think we are, we all occasionally trip up and believe something that is not true. Sometimes, this is because of a particular bias we have, and sometimes, it's simply because we didnāt properly check our sources.
The good news is that there are evidence-based strategies that can help!
A recent review article published in Nature Human Behavior neatly summarizes nine practical interventions that can help combat misinformation. These interventions are categorized into three broad categories: nudges, boosts, and refutation.
Nudges
Nudges are psychological strategies that help people be more careful in their decision-making.
They work by tapping into our natural tendencies and steering us towards more beneficial behaviors without restricting our freedom of choice. For example, accuracy prompts gently remind social media users of the importance of truth and encourage them to share accurate information online.
This type of nudge could be as simple as a pop-up asking, "Are you sure this is true?" before you share something online.
Other nudges create a small amount of "friction" in the decision-making process, such as asking us to pause and reflect before sharing.
We all are vulnerable to mindlessly scrolling and sharing things online sometimes, but having a simple reminder to be more careful can help.
Research shows that these small steps significantly reduce the spread of misinformation online.
Boosts
Boosts and educational interventions are designed to empower individuals by enhancing their skills and knowledge.
These types of interventions are transparent and involve the active participation of individuals. For example, a website could share media literacy tips that describe how to check the credibility of sources.
This could be done through lateral reading, which involves verifying information by cross-referencing multiple sources.
Another type of boost is called prebunking (as opposed to ādebunkingā), which prepares people to recognize and resist misinformation by exposing them to weakened forms of it. Prebunking can occur in various forms, including games, videos, or interactive content.
Boosting peopleās information and media literacy skills has been proven to improve their ability to identify false information and make them less vulnerable to being manipulated. Much of my own recent work centers on developing and testing media literacy games, and itās been very encouraging to see the results!
I especially like nudges and boosts because they are completely apolitical and empower users with strategies to more carefully evaluate the information they consume online.
Refutation
Refutation strategies tackle misinformation directly by debunking false claims and providing correct information.
Debunking myths and fact-checking claims are reactive, so they are always responding to misinformation as it arrives in the information ecosystem. While providing people with fact-checking has been shown to reduce misinformed beliefs overall, there are critical limitations. For example, it is limited by how much people trust the source of the fact-check, and people need to actually see the fact-check for it to work.
Unfortunately, viral misinformation can spread rapidly to many people before fact-checks can be created and shared. I definitely find it frustrating when I see misinformation getting thousands of likes and shares, and then if a correction comes out later, it only receives a small fraction of the attention.
The Swiss Cheese Approach
While interventions in all three of these categories have extensive research showcasing their effectiveness, the authors of the aforementioned study note how each technique may only combat a narrow slice of misinformation.
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