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‘We Need Psychological Herd Immunity to Create a Resilient Social Media Society’

Social psychologist Dr Melisa Basol explains how her work at the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab focuses on creating resistance against misinformation through inoculation theory

Looking at how disinformation was tackled in the 1950s and 1960s, there was a lot of research on inoculation theory. This is based on the biological analogy that we can preemptively debunk a virus – misinformation – and build mental antibodies against forms of persuasion that people could encounter in the future.

Applying the theory to the context of social media, rather than going ‘door to door’ and attempting to inoculate every single individual on every single argument on every single topic, we can try to persuade people against the underlying manipulation techniques that allow misinformation narratives to go viral in the first place.

The Storehouse of Truth or Lies?

Liana Patarkatsishvili speaks to Byline Times about how she believes art can help people engage with the damaging reality of today’s digital landscape
Liana Patarkatsishvili

‘Real Democracy Can Counter Division and Hate’

Co-initiator of the 2021 Global Citizens’ Assembly Jamie Kelsey shares his insights on how giving people genuine political agency is the answer to those tempted by more extreme ideas
Jamie Kelsey