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Nov 3, 2024 | 
nature.com | Gordon Pennycook |Adam Berinsky |Beth Goldberg |Stephan Lewandowsky
AbstractMisinformation is a major focus of intervention efforts. Psychological inoculation—an intervention intended to help people identify manipulation techniques—is being adopted at scale around the globe. Yet the efficacy of this approach for increasing belief accuracy remains unclear, as prior work uses synthetic materials that do not contain claims of truth.
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Oct 3, 2024 | 
science.org | Adrian C. Hayday |Nicola Festuccia |Roman C. Sarott |Stephan Lewandowsky
Concern about misinformation and its toxic effects on democracy is widespread. A survey of nearly 1500 experts by the World Economic Forum ranked misinformation and disinformation (the latter being intentionally spread, whereas the former may arise accidentally) as the top global risk during the next 2 years. Examples of misinformation-fueled events abound.
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Sep 20, 2024 | 
chronicle.com | Stephan Lewandowsky |Naomi Oreskes
The spread of misinformation poses a serious threat to science, public health, and democracies worldwide. In a recent essay in these pages, Jacob Shapiro and Sean Norton highlight the risks from disinformation (which they define as “the purposeful use of false information to deliberately deceive others”), but go on to argue that scholars should stop studying misinformation (“false or misleading information spread without specific intent to deceive”).
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Jul 30, 2024 | 
nature.com | Stephan Lewandowsky
AbstractMis- and disinformation pose substantial societal challenges, and have thus become the focus of a substantive field of research. However, the field of misinformation research has recently come under scrutiny on two fronts. First, a political response has emerged, claiming that misinformation research aims to censor conservative voices.
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May 12, 2024 | 
nature.com | Anastasia Kozyreva |Philipp Lorenz-Spreen |Stefan M. Herzog |Stephan Lewandowsky |Ralph Hertwig |Joe Bak-Coleman | +17 more
AbstractThe spread of misinformation through media and social networks threatens many aspects of society, including public health and the state of democracies. One approach to mitigating the effect of misinformation focuses on individual-level interventions, equipping policymakers and the public with essential tools to curb the spread and influence of falsehoods. Here we introduce a toolbox of individual-level interventions for reducing harm from online misinformation.
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Feb 22, 2024 | 
globalpolicyjournal.com | Lee McIntyre |Stephan Lewandowsky
With over half the world’s population heading to the polls in 2024, disinformation season is upon us — and the warnings are dire. The World Economic Forum declared misinformation a top societal threat over the next two years and major news organisations caution that disinformation poses an unprecedented threat to democracies worldwide. Yet, some scholars and pundits have questioned whether disinformation can really sway election outcomes.
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Feb 18, 2024 | 
phys.org | Lee McIntyre |Stephan Lewandowsky
With over half the world's population heading to the polls in 2024, disinformation season is upon us—and the warnings are dire. The World Economic Forum declared misinformation a top societal threat over the next two years and major news organizations caution that disinformation poses an unprecedented threat to democracies worldwide.
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Feb 16, 2024 | 
homelandsecuritynewswire.com | Lee McIntyre |Stephan Lewandowsky
DISINFORMATIONDisinformation Threatens Global Elections – Here’s How to Fight BackPublished 16 February 2024With over half the world’s population heading to the polls in 2024, disinformation season is upon us — and the warnings are dire. Many efforts have focused on fact-checking and debunking false beliefs. In contrast, “prebunking” is a new way to prevent false beliefs from forming in the first place. Polio was a highly infectious disease that was eradicated through vaccination and herd immunity.
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Feb 15, 2024 | 
theconversation.com | Lee McIntyre |Stephan Lewandowsky |Sander van der Linden
With over half the world’s population heading to the polls in 2024, disinformation season is upon us — and the warnings are dire. The World Economic Forum declared misinformation a top societal threat over the next two years and major news organisations caution that disinformation poses an unprecedented threat to democracies worldwide. Yet, some scholars and pundits have questioned whether disinformation can really sway election outcomes.
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Nov 26, 2023 | 
allianceforscience.org | Stephan Lewandowsky |John Cook
Misinformation is debated everywhere and has justifiably sparked concerns. It can polarise the public, reduce health-protective behaviors such as mask-wearing and vaccination, and erode trust in science. Much misinformation is spread not by accident but as part of organized political campaigns, in which case we refer to it as disinformation. But there is a more fundamental, subversive damage arising from misinformation and disinformation that is discussed less often. It undermines democracy itself.
