{"id":2301,"date":"2020-12-15T14:00:28","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T14:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=139518"},"modified":"2020-12-15T14:00:28","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T14:00:28","slug":"the-new-game-cranky-uncle-is-a-vaccine-against-fake-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/15\/the-new-game-cranky-uncle-is-a-vaccine-against-fake-news\/","title":{"rendered":"The new game \u2018Cranky Uncle\u2019 is a vaccine against fake news"},"content":{"rendered":"

As COVID-19 spread around the globe this year, conspiracy theories<\/a> did too. One wacky and pernicious standout claimed the new virus had been deliberately manufactured as a plot by a foreign power, or by billionaires trying to take over the world (or maybe even by aliens<\/a>!). In mid-March, when the lockdowns were beginning, a survey by the Atlantic<\/a> found that nearly a third of Americans believed that the virus has been created and spread for some nefarious purpose. If only there was also a vaccine that could fix the rampant spread of fake news.<\/p>\n

The idea isn\u2019t as far-fetched as it sounds. Research shows that exposing people to weakened doses of misinformation<\/a> can teach them to identify it, similar to how a vaccine coaches immune systems how to deal with a virus. And instead of getting a shot, you get to play a game.<\/p>\n

Cranky Uncle<\/em>, an app released on Tuesday, uses this approach to teach people the ins and outs of anti-science propaganda \u2014 you know, the kind of myths that convince people climate change is a Chinese hoax. The game\u2019s namesake Cranky Uncle is a cartoon figure that represents conspiracy-spouting uncles everywhere. He mentors you to become a science denier, just like him. He teaches you all about his favorite logical fallacies and the techniques he uses to dismiss scientific evidence, like impossible expectations<\/em> (\u201cUntil we find all missing links, we can\u2019t be confident in the theory of evolution\u201d) and fake experts<\/em> (\u201cRelax! I have a bachelor in computer science!\u201d says a cartoon doctor as he takes a saw to a very worried-looking Cranky Uncle).<\/p>\n

As you giggle at silly jokes and learn how to rebut his arguments, Cranky Uncle gets crankier and crankier. Throughout the game, you get quizzed on your ability to spot logical fallacies and false arguments, improving your critical thinking skills.<\/p>\n

Autonomy \/ John Cook<\/span><\/p>\n

Cranky Uncle<\/em> was created by John Cook, a cognitive scientist and climate communication researcher at George Mason University, in collaboration with the creative agency Autonomy Co-op. The app is now available to download for free<\/a> for Android and iPhone. Cook, who founded the popular climate myth-busting site Skeptical Science<\/a> in 2007 and worked as a newspaper cartoonist for a decade, is also behind the game\u2019s illustrations. He\u2019s been an advocate for bringing humor and the arts into science communication and finding creative ways to reach people on an emotional level. \u201cI always knew that cartoons had this potential to engage people about climate change,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n

The game is part of a new effort to \u201cinoculate\u201d people against fake news, sometimes called \u201cpre-bunking.\u201d Cognitive science and psychology experts say that the best way to address misinformation is to prepare people to identify it in real-time, as opposed to trying to debunk a message after it has spread.<\/p>\n

Inoculation theory was developed by William J. McGuire, a social psychologist who got interested in the idea after the Korean War, when some U.S. prisoners of war elected to stay with their captors instead of returning home. At the height of the Cold War, many in government and academia were interested in how people could be so quickly indoctrinated and how to prevent them from getting brainwashed. Sander van der Linden, a professor of social psychology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, said McGuire\u2019s research \u201cshowed that people are easily persuaded when they haven\u2019t practiced their mental defenses against an attack, and you can bolster the defense by preemptively giving people weakened doses\u201d of misinformation.<\/p>\n

But over time, people forgot about McGuire\u2019s theory. \u201cIt\u2019s more relevant when there\u2019s chaos in society,\u201d van der Linden said. He rediscovered McGuire\u2019s work about 10 years ago and realized that it was more relevant than ever in the age of the internet. He then helped develop three short choose-your-own-adventure games based on inoculation theory. In Bad News<\/em><\/a>, an online game from 2018<\/a>, you pose as a fake news tycoon, using fake experts, attacking climate science, and stoking fear among your followers. So far, the game has been played a million<\/a> times. Playing it just once, according to a recent study<\/a>, can reduce people\u2019s susceptibility to fake news for three months. The idea is that in learning how disinformation is made and why it spreads, you can better spot it in the Wild West of the internet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way for people to learn is through experience,\u201d van der Linden said. \u201cI think everyone knows that intuitively. And that\u2019s why it\u2019s so hard to internalize a fact sheet, versus just doing it yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Go Viral!<\/em><\/a>, a collaboration between the Cambridge team and the U.K. government, you join the online group \u201cNot Co-fraid\u201d and spread emotionally resonant rumors about the pandemic. Van der Linden\u2019s latest game, Harmony Square<\/em><\/a> \u2014 developed with support from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, among other organizations \u2014 is about political misinformation during elections. You get hired as a \u201cChief Disinformation Officer\u201d to \u201csow discord and chaos\u201d in the fictional town of Harmony Square.<\/p>\n

Social media companies recognize the promise of prebunking, too. Van der Linden\u2019s team is currently working with WhatsApp on a fourth inoculation game. \u201cIf social media companies implement it, if the government implements it, you just reach so many more people, and you can have more public impact and more data,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re getting to the real-world stages of what used to be a theoretical idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twitter<\/a> started \u201cprebunking\u201d for the first time this year to preemptively deflate myths about the November election before the voting started. \u201cElection experts confirm that voting by mail is safe and secure, even with an increase in mail-in ballots,\u201d one said. \u201cEven so, you might encounter unconfirmed claims that voting by mail leads to election fraud ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AAutonomy \/ John Cook<\/span><\/p>\n

Cook says that interactive tools like Cranky Uncle<\/em> are in demand from educators. So far, they\u2019ve tested the game in high school and college classrooms across the country, including in West Virginia, Massachusetts, Texas, Utah, Washington state, and Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a drawback, it\u2019s that the mental defenses you develop by playing these games aren\u2019t going to last forever. \u201cIn psychology, a lot of effects are temporary,\u201d van der Linden said. So if people don\u2019t practice the skills they learned, their ability to identify fake news may weaken over time. Like many vaccines, anti-misinformation defenses work better with a booster shot.<\/p>\n