Playing a "fake news" game and rehearsing it afterwards helps you spot misinformation

What is it about?

"Fake news" games such as Bad News, Harmony Square and Cranky Uncle have been around for years as innovative interventions against hashtag#misinformation, seeking to "inoculate" people against rhetorical devices and manipulation techniques often encountered online. But recent research has shown some limitations: the effect might wear off quickly, and there has been some indication that playing the games may not only improve people's ability to spot misinformation but also inadvertently reduce belief in true information. For this paper, we ran six separate studies to address these limitations. We developed a short feedback exercise (where we ask players to rate a few fictitious headlines as "misleading" or "not misleading", and explain why their answer was correct or incorrect), and implemented it at the end of the Bad News and Harmony Square games. We find that these exercises substantially improve "discernment" (one's ability to distinguish true from false) compared to playing the game without feedback. We also find that feedback may improve the longevity of the effect (for at least a week after playing).

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Photo by Elimende Inagella on Unsplash

Photo by Elimende Inagella on Unsplash

Why is it important?

We learned a lot about the importance of optimizing learning environments. Basically, it's important to make sure people can practice what they learned in an intervention. Our findings may be useful for researchers and practitioners who are developing their own gamified interventions: offering players the opportunity to rehearse the game's core learning outcomes during or after playing has substantial benefits for the game's efficacy.

Perspectives