Nov 05, 2024 08:00:00

An attempt to 'vaccinate people against' misinformation and conspiracy theories

There are many misinformation and conspiracy theories in the world, some of which make you wonder, 'Why would anyone be fooled by such a lie?', while others are so clever that you have to think carefully to see through them.

Sander van der Linden , a professor of psychology at Cambridge University, proposes that we can increase our resistance to misinformation and conspiracy theories by 'vaccinating ourselves with our thoughts.'

Can people be 'inoculated' against misinformation? | Science | AAAS
https://www.science.org/content/article/can-people-be-inoculated-against-misinformation

As a boy growing up in the Netherlands, van der Linden learned that many of his Jewish mother's relatives had been murdered by the Nazis, and at school he learned that anti-Semitic conspiracy theories were still widespread in Europe. So van der Linden began to study the power of propaganda and why people are led to believe false information.

At the time of writing, van der Linden, director of the Social Decision-Making Lab at the University of Cambridge, argues that just as people can be vaccinated against infectious diseases, it is possible to inoculate people against misinformation and conspiracy theories.

Thought vaccination consists of two steps: 'Warning people that their thinking may be manipulated and steered' and 'exposing them to weakened forms of misinformation that are intriguing but not fooling enough.' The concept is simple, and it is a method of countering misinformation that has been gaining attention in recent years.

The idea of ideological vaccination was first conceived when some American POWs decided to remain in China after the Korean War ended in 1954, instead of returning home, becoming attached to Communist ideology. Many people believed that this was due to 'brainwashing' by Communists, and argued that the way to resist this was to thoroughly indoctrinate people with American ideology at home and in school.

However, psychologist William McGuire wondered if the POWs were vulnerable to propaganda because it was the first time they had come into contact with communist ideology. In other words, because the POWs had grown up in a 'sterile environment' away from the communist state, they had no resistance to the intense propaganda and were easily influenced by it.

McGuire wondered if vaccinations against ideas, like those against infectious diseases, might be effective, and conducted an experiment in which he challenged students to refute self-evident facts such as 'it's better to brush your teeth after every meal' and 'antibiotics have brought great benefits to humanity.' As a result, students who were confronted with a counterargument dramatically lost faith in the facts. However, when he had them read an essay that presented counterarguments to the facts and refuted those counterarguments before the counterargument, he found that the counterargument made it harder for their beliefs to be shaken.

Van der Linden came across McGuire's paper while studying at Yale University, and wondered if ideological vaccination might be effective in a wider variety of situations. In a study conducted by van der Linden on more than 2,000 subjects, it was shown that subjects who had been warned about misinformation about climate change in advance had no influence on their ideology even when they were exposed to the misinformation. This effect was also observed in people who were originally skeptical of climate change.

The ideological vaccination advocated by van der Linden and his colleagues has already been applied to the real world. In 2018, van der Linden and his colleagues developed the online game ' Bad News ,' in which players spread various types of false information with the goal of becoming the 'top of the fake news industry.'

It has also been reported that playing 'Bad News' actually makes people less likely to believe fake news.

It turns out that you can get vaccinated against fake news just by playing a game - GIGAZINE

Research has also shown that running YouTube ads that feature videos explaining fake news tactics improves people's ability to spot fake news.

An attempt to improve the ability to spot fake news by running 'videos explaining fake news tactics' on YouTube ads - GIGAZINE

While ideological vaccination seems to be very effective, there are also voices of opposition to this approach. Gordon Pennycook, a psychologist at Cornell University, points out that the 'emotionally charged language' used in misinformation is also used in true news, and that ideological vaccination could actually undermine trust in real news.

In a debate with van der Linden in December 2023, Pennycook brought up the case of a New York Times article reporting on COVID-19 that listed the names of people who had died from COVID-19. 'I think some people cried when they saw the headline,' Pennycook said. 'Whether you think this is a manipulative technique depends on your perspective. If you're skeptical of COVID-19, you might think this is manipulative,' Pennycook said.

Van der Linden acknowledges that this is a valid concern, but argues that the more people learn about the different characteristics of misinformation, the better they will be at spotting it. He also points out that even if a newspaper has a good reputation, if it publishes an emotionally charged story, it is reasonable for people to rate the article as less credible.

Others have pointed out that ideological vaccination focuses solely on the recipients of information, shifting criticism away from social media companies like X, Facebook, and TikTok, which profit from the spread of misinformation. 'Ideological vaccination is easier than addressing systemic problems, but it puts all the pressure on individuals,' argued Sandra Gonzalez-Byron , a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania.

A study conducted in 2023 investigated how nine different approaches, including ideological vaccination, affect people's ability to detect misinformation. The results showed that there is no silver bullet to improve people's ability to detect misinformation, and while they all work to some extent, no exceptionally effective approach was identified. Still, there is some thought that it may be possible to find multiple effective approaches, including ideological vaccination, and layer them together to increase their effectiveness.

Pennycook argues that a systemic approach is needed to tackle misinformation, targeting social media companies, and van der Linden agrees: 'I'm a psychologist so I'm biased towards individual solutions, but I'm under no illusions, we all know that we need structural solutions as well,' van der Linden said.