Misinformation literacy

Goal: Build resilience towards misinformation Evidence rating (PDN): Likely Civic signal: Understand — Build civic competence When to use: Proactive

What it is

Educational content and interactive tools that teach about common misinformation strategies and fact-checking techniques.

Note on terminology: some refer to these interventions as "prebunking", which we define as content that forewarns and refutes prevalent misinformation narratives. See our Prebunking library item.

Intended impact

By teaching people about misinformation and fact-checking techniques, they will be better at identifying misinformation and be less susceptible to it.

Evidence that it works

Several field experiments show encouraging results from educating people about misinformation and fact-checking techniques. We looked at three, discussed below; one that examines an educational game and two that look at educational videos.

Roozenbeek and van der Linden (2019) developed and studied an interactive game called “Bad News”, in which users learn about ways to create misinformation that might appeal to social media users by, for example, impersonating an authoritative figure. Participants were better able to rate misinformation as unreliable after playing the 15-minute game compared to before (average effect size: Cohen’s d = 0.52). While they observed a substantial effect size, a limitation of the study is that there is no control group to compare participants to. (Note: all results we report in this review are statistically significant, unless otherwise stated. We share results in the units reported by study authors.)

In another study, Roozenbeek et al. (2022) looked at the effectiveness of 90-second videos that taught manipulation techniques commonly used in misinformation. YouTube users were shown videos that either taught them about the use of emotional language or false dichotomies. Within 24 hours, users received a YouTube survey asking them to identify the manipulation technique in a headline. Compared to users who did not watch a video, those users were better able to identify the correct technique (Cohen’s h = 0.09).

In a third study, Bor et al., (2020) fielded an experiment in which participants watched 10-15 minute videos produced by civic organizations that highlighted anti-misinformation practices. In the subsequent week, participants who watched one of the videos shared stories from higher quality news outlets on the social media platform Twitter, compared to a control group (β = 0.19).

Altogether, these experiments suggest that users gain knowledge about misinformation and fact-checking techniques from the educational content and are able to apply that knowledge. The experiment by Bor et al. (2020), most promisingly, shows that such knowledge can reduce how much users share and spread misinformation.

Why it matters

While the content of misinformation may change based on current events, there are often commonalities in the strategies employed in them. By learning about these strategies and fact-checking techniques, users are better equipped to identify and handle misinformation even if their content differs.

Special considerations

It should be noted that although there is evidence the educational games and videos above are effective, they are time-intensive interventions requiring users to spend 1.5 to 15 minutes of engagement.

Citations

• *Fake news game confers psychological resistance against online misinformation* — Jon Roozenbeek, Sander van der Linden (Palgrave Communications, June 25, 2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0279-9
• *Psychological inoculation improves resilience against misinformation on social media* — Jon Roozenbeek, Sander Van Der Linden, Beth Goldberg, Steve Rathje, Stephan Lewandowsky (Science Advances, August 24, 2022)
• *"Fact-checking" videos reduce belief in misinformation and improve the quality of news shared on Twitter* — Alexander Bor, Mathias Osmundsen, Stig Hebbelstrup Rye Rasmussen, Anja Bechmann, Michael Bang Petersen (ArXiv)

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From the Prosocial Design Network's Digital Intervention Library (https://www.prosocialdesign.org/library/list-tips-for-checking-accuracy-of-shared-headlines), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Reformatted for the RT Commons; text otherwise as published. Library citation: Prosocial Design Network (2024), Digital Intervention Library, https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/Q4RMB. Anything built from this pattern should credit the Prosocial Design Network and the researchers cited above.

Details

• goal: Build resilience towards misinformation
• citations: [object Object], [object Object], [object Object]
• image alt: A mockup of an over-the-top news headline that reads "ALIENS!". In front of it is a reminder: "If shocking claims in a headline sound unbelievable, then they probably are."
• image url: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/647f696dc653a97c26f42a0b/647f696dc653a97c26f42b7c_201130aliens.png
• pdn rating: Likely
• when to use: Proactive
• civic signal: Understand
• pdn library doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/Q4RMB
• civic signal goal: Build civic competence