The polluted information environment, caused largely by false and deceptive information and tactics, undermines all aspects of our economy and democracy.
Data from the behavioral sciences says building immunity to this deception is an effective tool for slowing the spread and mitigating the impact of mis-, dis- and mal-information. The theoretical foundation is based on inoculation theory, a psychological framework from the 1960s that aims to induce preemptive resistance against unwanted persuasion attempts.
In the same way a vaccine triggers antibodies in the immune system to fight off future infection, providing consumers of news and information with a weakened dose of the falsehoods or deceptive tactics generates “mental antibodies” and helps build cognitive muscles.
Using a multi-media approach including gamification, which has proven to be an effective education and motivation tool, fine-tune your own skills and then share the knowledge with others to help build our collective resistance to false information and deceptive tactics and their toxic effects.
Play To Protect Yourself From Misinformation. Share To Protect Your Community
A study from Cambridge shows that just a single time playing one of these games reduced within a treatment group the perceived reliability of fake news by an average of 21%.
Go Viral
Harmony Square
Spot the Troll
Now it’s your time to ACT:
Amplify these inoculation tools to create a healthy information environment.
Connect, converse and communicate about inoculation and its impact with your publics and peers.
Take action, share your expertise and encourage others to use these tools and spread the word.
What to do next?
Play a game and share and challenge others. Share on social media and encourage other to do the same. Let’s inoculate your community against disinformation.
