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Psychology & interventionsDetection methods
Measuring and Reducing Misinformation SusceptibilityJon Roozenbeek presents two major contributions: (1) the Misinformation Susceptibility Test (MIST), a psychometrically validated 20-item measure of how well people distinguish true from false headlines, and (2) findings that video-based inoculation interventions teaching manipulation techniques significantly improve people's ability to…
Psychology & interventionsDetection methods
Why People Believe Misinformation — and What We Can Do About ItJon Roozenbeek synthesizes eight years of misinformation research, examining why people believe false information and what interventions actually work. Grounding the analysis in the historical tobacco disinformation playbook, he argues that misinformation susceptibility stems not primarily from poor reasoning, but from media consumption…
Psychology & interventionsDetection methods
The Science of MisinformationVan Bavel synthesizes research on misinformation psychology, spread mechanisms, and evidence-based interventions. Misinformation is a persistent global risk (World Economic Forum priority).
Psychology & interventionsDetection methods
Fact or Fake? The Psychology of MisinformationEcker presents an overview of misinformation psychology, covering definition, sources, behavioral impacts, and evidence-based interventions. He demonstrates that misinformation influences reasoning even after people receive corrections (the continued influence effect), and that corrections are only partially effective.
Psychology & interventionsDetection methods
Prebunking Misinformation on Social MediaJon Roozenbeek presents the case for prebunking—teaching people to recognize manipulation tactics before encountering false claims—rather than relying on reactive debunking. Drawing on inoculation theory from the 1960s, he argues that manipulation techniques recur across misinformation campaigns: emotional exploitation, false…
Psychology & interventionsDetection methods
The Continued Influence of MisinformationUllrich Ecker presents research on the continued influence effect—the phenomenon that misinformation continues to shape people's reasoning and memory even after they receive corrections and understand them. He examines four social factors that shape this effect: source credibility (trustworthiness matters more than expertise),…
Spread & networksPlatforms, policy & society
The Hype MachineA book talk by MIT's Sinan Aral on "The Hype Machine," which explores how social media simultaneously disrupts elections, the economy, and public health while offering tremendous potential for good. The presentation synthesizes 20 years of research on social media diffusion, arguing that misinformation spreads faster than truth because…
Detection methodsSpread & networks
Fake News in the 2016 and 2018 Campaigns: Prevalence, Detection, and EffectsNyhan presents empirical findings on fake news consumption in the 2016 and 2018 U.S. campaigns, drawing from survey data with browser tracking to measure actual article visits. While mainstream media reported on fake news as a widespread crisis, his research shows that only ~25% of Americans visited fake news websites, and consumption…
Psychology & interventionsDetection methods
How technology can fight extremism and online harassmentYasmin Green, head of Jigsaw, presents two technological interventions addressing online harms rooted in human psychology. For radicalization: the "Redirect Method" (piloted 2016) uses online advertising to intercept users searching for extremist content (e.g., "How do I join ISIS?") and show them counter-propaganda videos from credible…
Psychology & interventionsDetection methods
Why People Fall for MisinformationJoseph Isaac traces how misconceptions persist using the tongue map myth as exemplar: David Hänig's 1901 research found modest taste-sensitivity variations across tongue regions, but through translation barriers, visual simplification, and our preference for clean narratives, it became the false claim that sweetness is imperceptible at…
Psychology & interventionsDetection methods
Towards psychological herd immunity: Cross-cultural prebunking against COVID-19 misinformationJon Roozenbeek presents a cross-cultural randomized controlled trial testing two psychological interventions against COVID-19 misinformation. Comparing the "Go Viral" game (technique-based inoculation) against UNESCO infographics and a Tetris control condition across 1,777 participants in the UK, Germany, and France, he demonstrates that…
Spread & networksDetection methods
Computational Propaganda and the Lie MachinesPhilip Howard discusses his book The Lie Machines and describes computational propaganda as an industrialized system combining organized disinformation campaigns (social component) with social media algorithms (technical component). He outlines three production stages — creation, dissemination, and long-term marketing — and argues that…
Detection methodsPsychology & interventions
From WMDs to the vaccine-autism myth: Understanding misperceptions in politics and health careNyhan presents research on why people hold and resist correcting false beliefs, spanning political misperceptions (Iraq WMDs, Obama birth certificate, death panels) and health misinformation (vaccine-autism link). His core finding is that simple fact-based corrections often fail and sometimes backfire—especially among politically…
Spread & networksBots & coordinated campaigns
The Spread of Misinformation in Social MediaMenczer presents a framework for understanding misinformation spread through social networks as an inevitable consequence of network structure and human cognitive limitations rather than platform design failures. He discusses how structural properties—scale-free topology, finite attention, information overload—create vulnerabilities…
Detection methodsPlatforms, policy & society
Truth DecayTruth Decay—the erosion of reliance on facts and data in policy-making and civil discourse—is not new but cyclically emerges during periods of technological disruption in media. Kavanagh traces this through yellow journalism, radio demagoguery, cable news, and now social media.
Psychology & interventionsDetection methods
The Psychology of MisinformationEcker presents evidence that misinformation continues to influence reasoning even after people receive, believe, and remember corrections. Drawing on cognitive psychology, he demonstrates that corrections are only partially effective—typically halving (not eliminating) reliance on misinformation.
Psychology & interventionsPlatforms, policy & society
How to Pre-Bunk Misinformation and DisinformationJon Roozenbeek discusses psychological inoculation as a scalable defense against misinformation. Rather than focusing on veracity (which becomes politically contested), he proposes teaching people to recognize predictable manipulation techniques before encountering false content.
Spread & networksDetection methods
Climate Change Misinformation: Supply, Demand, and the Challenges to ScienceLewandowsky examines climate denial through supply and demand lenses: well-funded disinformation campaigns (billions annually from fossil fuel interests and conservative think tanks) deploy cherry-picked data to infiltrate mainstream media and political rhetoric, while political ideology (conservatism, libertarianism) predisposes people…
Deepfakes & multimodalDetection methods
The Erosion of Shared Reality in the Age of DeepfakesGenerative AI has moved from nascent to commodity in just 18 months; text-to-image, text-to-video, and real-time interactive deepfakes are now trivial to create. Humans are bad at detecting them (performing ~60% accuracy on trained tasks vs. 50% chance).