A staggering 30% of individuals state they rely on social media as their primary news source. As social media platforms are known for their spread of misinformation, the significance of critical thinking becomes increasingly crucial in helping people distinguish facts from fiction.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge found an effective way to make people resilient against misinformation. They created the Bad News role-playing game in which they experimented with ‘prebunking’. Prebunking involves introducing individuals to a pernicious claim before they encounter it in the wild, followed by a rigorous debunking of that claim.

In the Bad News game, players take on the role of fake news-mongers. Their task is to gain as many followers as they can while slowly building up fake credibility as a news site. The goal of the game is to expose the player to the tactics and manipulation techniques used to mislead people and build up a following. The game functions as a psychological ‘vaccine’ against disinformation: playing it builds cognitive resistance against common forms of manipulation that you may encounter online. People who played the game were afterwards significantly less swayed by misinformation, with effects lasting up to three months. These games are now in use in classrooms across the world.

Prebunking empowers people in advance, giving them the tools they need to discern fact from fiction and preventing misinformation from taking root in the first place. How can your company or organisation support employees in becoming less swayed by misinformation?

Would you like to become more resilient to misinformation as well? Play the game here