{"id":1622185,"date":"2022-08-26T06:18:08","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T10:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1622185"},"modified":"2022-08-26T06:18:15","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T10:18:15","slug":"google-tests-prebunking-in-fight-against-misinformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/google-tests-prebunking-in-fight-against-misinformation\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Tests &#8220;Prebunking&#8221; in Fight Against &#8220;Misinformation&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgoogle-tests-prebunking-in-fight-against-misinformation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1622185&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Google is testing \u201cprebunking\u201d strategies aimed at \u201cinoculating people against manipulation\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-misinformation\">misinformation<\/a>\u201d online, researchers say.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers from Google and the UK\u2019s Cambridge University teamed up to conduct experiments that involved five short videos aimed at \u201cinoculating people against manipulation techniques commonly used in misinformation,\u201d according to a paper published Aug. 24 in the journal Science Advances.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.abo6254\">study,<\/a>\u00a0titled \u201cPsychological Inoculation Improves Resilience Against Misinformation on Social Media,\u201d involved\u00a0nearly 30,000 participants.\u00a0Other authors included researchers at the UK\u2019s University of Bristol and the University of Western Australia.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0manipulation techniques commonly used in misinformation are \u201cemotionally manipulative language, incoherence, false dichotomies, scapegoating, and ad hominem attacks,\u201d the researchers said.<\/p>\n<p>The participants were shown 90-second videos aimed at familiarizing watchers with techniques such as scapegoating and deliberate incoherence.\u00a0The videos introduced concepts from the \u201cmisinformation playbook,\u201d according to researchers, and explained to viewers in simple terms some of the most common manipulation techniques, using fictional characters as opposed to real political or media figures.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers then gave people a \u201cmicro-dose\u201d of misinformation\u00a0in the form of relatable examples from film and TV, such as \u201cFamily Guy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They found that the videos \u201cimproved manipulation technique recognition\u201d and boosted watchers\u2019 confidence in spotting these techniques, while also \u201cincreasing people\u2019s ability to discern trustworthy from untrustworthy content.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The videos also \u201cimprove the quality of their sharing decisions,\u201d researchers said.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Improving Misinformation Resilience\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThese effects are robust across the political spectrum and a wide variety of covariates,\u201d they wrote. \u201cWe show that psychological inoculation campaigns on social media are effective at improving misinformation resilience at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnline misinformation continues to have adverse consequences for society,\u201d the study states. \u201cInoculation theory has been put forward as a way to reduce susceptibility to misinformation by informing people about how they might be misinformed, but its scalability has been elusive both at a theoretical level and a practical level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among the \u201cmisinformation\u201d cited by researchers in the study is that relating to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-covid-19\">COVID-19<\/a>, which has \u201cbeen linked to reduced willingness to get vaccinated against the disease and lower intentions to comply with public health measures.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Multiple studies have shown that vaccines are linked to two types of heart inflammation:\u00a0myocarditis and pericarditis, and\u00a0U.S. authorities have acknowledged a link between the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and heart inflammation.<\/p>\n<p>However, they state that the benefits of the shots outweigh the risks.<\/p>\n<p>The authors in the study compared the videos to vaccines, stating that giving people a \u201cmicro-dose\u201d of misinformation helps prevent them from being susceptible in the future, much like\u00a0medical inoculations help build resistance against pathogens.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018Works Like a Vaccine\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>The idea is based on\u00a0what social psychologists call \u201cinoculation\u00a0theory\u201d\u2014building\u00a0resistance to persuasion attempts via exposure to persuasive communications that can be easily refuted.<\/p>\n<p>Google already is harnessing the findings and plans to roll out a \u201cprebunking campaign\u201d across several platforms in Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic, in an effort to stem emerging disinformation relating to Ukrainian refugees. The campaign is\u00a0in partnership with local nongovernmental organizations, fact-checkers, academics, and disinformation experts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur interventions make no claims about what is true or a fact, which is often disputed,\u201d lead author Dr. Jon Roozenbeek from Cambridge\u2019s\u00a0Social Decision-Making Lab\u00a0(SDML) said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cam.ac.uk\/stories\/inoculateexperiment\">statement.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThey are effective for anyone who does not appreciate being manipulated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe\u00a0inoculation\u00a0effect was consistent across liberals and conservatives. It worked for people with different levels of education, and different personality types.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYouTube has well over 2 billion active users worldwide,\u201d said professor Sander van der Linden, the head of SDML and a study co-author. \u201cOur videos could easily be embedded within the ad space on YouTube to prebunk misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-katabella-roberts\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Katabella Roberts is a news writer for The Epoch Times, focusing primarily on the United States, world, and business news.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google is testing \u201cprebunking\u201d strategies aimed at \u201cinoculating people against manipulation\u201d and \u201cmisinformation\u201d online, researchers say.Researchers from Google and the UK\u2019s Cambridge University teamed up to conduct experiments that involved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1897500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1622185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1622185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1622185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1622185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1622185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}