Game 'pre-bunks' political misinformation by letting players undermine democracy

Date:
November 6, 2020
Source:
University of Cambridge
Summary:
An online game helps 'inoculate' players against fake news
by showing them how political misinformation is created and
circulated. Launched today, Harmony Square has been created
by psychologists with support from US Department of Homeland
Security. Accompanying study shows that a single play reduces the
perceived reliability of misinformation in users.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A short online game in which players are recruited as a "Chief
Disinformation Officer," using tactics such as trolling to sabotage
elections in a peaceful town, has been shown to reduce susceptibility
to political misinformation in its users.


==========================================================================
The free-to-play Harmony Square is released to the public today, along
with a study on its effectiveness published in the Harvard Misinformation Review.

It has been created by University of Cambridge psychologists with support
from the US Department of State's Global Engagement Center and Department
of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
(CISA).

The gameplay is based on "inoculation theory": that exposing people to
a weak "dose" of common techniques used to spread fake news allows them
to better identify and disregard misinformation when they encounter it
in future.

In this case, by understanding how to incite political division in
the game using everything from bots and conspiracies to fake experts,
players get a form of "psychological vaccine" against the product of
these techniques in the real world.

"Trying to debunk misinformation after it has spread is like shutting the
barn door after the horse has bolted. By pre-bunking, we aim to stop the
spread of fake news in the first place," said Dr Sander van der Linden, Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making lab and senior author
of the new study.



========================================================================== Twitter has started using a "pre-bunk" approach: highlighting
types of fake news likely to be encountered in feeds during the US
election. However, researchers argue that familiarising people with
techniques behind misinformation builds a "general inoculation," reducing
the need to rebut each individual conspiracy.

In the 10-minute game Harmony Square, a small town neighbourhood "obsessed
with democracy" comes under fire as players bait the square's "living
statute," spread falsehoods about its candidate for "bear controller,"
and set up a disreputable online news site to attack the local TV anchor.

"The game itself is quick, easy and tongue-in-cheek, but the experiential learning that underpins it means that people are more likely to spot misinformation, and less likely to share it, next time they log on to
Facebook or YouTube," said Dr Jon Roozenbeek, a Cambridge psychologist
and lead author of the study.

Over the course of four short levels, users learn about five manipulation techniques: trolling to provoke outrage; exploiting emotional language
to create anger and fear; artificially amplifying reach through bots and
fake followers; creating and spreading conspiracy theories; polarizing audiences.

In a randomized controlled trial, researchers took 681 people and asked
them to rate the reliability of a series of news and social media posts:
some real, some misinformation, and even some faked misinformation
created for the study, in case participants had already come across
real-world examples.



==========================================================================
They gave roughly half the sample Harmony Square to play, while the
other half played Tetris, and then asked them to rate another series of
news posts.

The perceived reliability of misinformation dropped an average of 16%
in those who completed Harmony Square compared to their assessment prior
to playing. The game also reduced willingness to share fake news with
others by 11%.

Importantly, the players' own politics -- whether they leaned left or
right - - made no difference.

Having the "control group" who played Tetris allowed the scientists to determine an "effect size" of 0.54 for the study, said Van der Linden.

"The effect size suggests that if the population was split equally like
the study sample, 63% of the half that played the game would go on to
find misinformation significantly less reliable, compared to just 37%
of the half left to navigate online information without the inoculation
of Harmony Square," he said.

The project follows other playful attempts by CISA to illustrate how
"foreign influencers" use disinformation to target "hot button" issues. A previous demonstration took the example of whether pineapple belongs
on pizza.

However, Harmony Square is based on the findings of a number of studies
from the Cambridge team showing how similar gamified approaches to
digital literacy significantly reduce susceptibility to fake news and
online conspiracies.

The team behind the game, which includes the Dutch media agency DROG and designers Gusmanson, have recently worked with the UK Cabinet Office
on Go Viral!, an intervention that specifically tackles conspiracies
around COVID-19.

Harmony Square is geared towards the politically charged misinformation
that has plagued many democracies over the last decade. "The aftermath
of this week's election day is likely to see an explosion of dangerous
online falsehoods as tensions reach fever pitch," said Van der Linden.

"Fake news and online conspiracies will continue to chip away at the
democratic process until we take seriously the need to improve digital
media literacy across populations. The effectiveness of interventions
such as Harmony Square are a promising start," he said.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Cambridge. The original
story is licensed under a Creative_Commons_License. Note: Content may
be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Jon Roozenbeek, Sander van der Linden. Breaking Harmony Square:
A game
that "inoculates" against political misinformation. Harvard Kennedy
School Misinformation Review, 2020; DOI: 10.37016/mr-2020-47 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201106093030.htm

--- up 10 weeks, 4 days, 7 hours, 50 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1337:3/111)