Strategies for the Misinformation Era

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 didn’t 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 “debunking”), 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 people’s 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 it’s 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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