Articles By
Thomas Nygren
Prebunking interventions based on “inoculation” theory can reduce susceptibility to misinformation across cultures
Jon Roozenbeek, Sander van der Linden and Thomas Nygren
This study finds that the online “fake news” game, Bad News, can confer psychological resistance against common online misinformation strategies across different cultures. The intervention draws on the theory of psychological inoculation: Analogous to the process of medical immunization, we find that “prebunking,” or preemptively warning and exposing people to weakened doses of misinformation, can help cultivate “mental antibodies” against fake news.