Active Inoculation
What Works to Build Mental Immunity - #8
Having students create disinformation is an effective way to inoculate them against it. This is called active inoculation.1 For example, pupils can make up silly conspiracy theories and deceptive ad campaigns. Such exercises invite them to playfully deceive, which gets them thinking about the techniques bad actors use to fool people. A conversational debrief can help them draw the right conclusions.
Applications
Teach students to look for clues that something might be manipulative.234 For example, “angertainment” is sensationalized news that deliberately stokes outrage.5 Have students create fake angertainment newscasts, then discuss them. What works, and why?6
Have teams of students develop pseudoscientific advertisements.7
Have them invent and defend wacky conspiracy stories. Explain that a true believer can always dismiss falsifying evidence by claiming it was planted by the conspirators.
Notes
Make it clear that you’re not encouraging deceptive messaging. Understanding tricky information is a powerful skill, and with great power comes great responsibility. We must all be guardians and seekers of the truth: we should call out misleading techniques, and never use them to mislead others.
Learn More
“Inoculating Students against Misinformation by Having Them Create It”7
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This post is part of our “What Works” series for educators and researchers.
We are open to incorporating feedback into these modules before we publish them on our website. Please comment on this post to provide suggestions. We’re particularly interested in additional applications, resources, and readings. All constructive feedback is welcomed. Thank you!
Trecek-King, M., & Cook, J. (2024). Combining Different Inoculation Types to Increase Student Engagement and Build Resilience Against Science Misinformation. Journal of College Science Teaching, 53(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/0047231X.2023.2291968
“Disinformation Techniques: How to Spot Them”– https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ the-cyberpsychology-page/202107/disinformation-techniques-how-spot-them
Roozenbeek, J., & Van der Linden, S. (2021). Inoculation theory and misinformation (Defining the Problem, para. 4). Riga: NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence. https://stratcomcoe.org/ publications/inoculation-theory-and-misinformation/217
Videos on common manipulative techniques https://inoculation.science/inoculation-videos/