Summary
"Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity" by Sander van der Linden provides a comprehensive approach to understanding and combating misinformation drawing heavily from his own research. This book is more psychology than neuroscience, but I think it overlaps and compliments some of the other books that we read recently on this topic, such as The Chaos Machine, which focused a little more on dopamine-reward pathways and learning schedules. The consistent metaphor used throughout the book is that the spread of misinformation follows very similar principles to the spread of a virus, and that we can draw on ideas from how we fight viruses to also fight the spread of misinformation. Particularly, he uses the metaphor of cognitive "antigens." Each chapter of the book focuses on an element of the spread of misinformation, and then he provides a strategy, or antigen, to that particular problem at the end of the chapter. The book is further separated into three sections. The first section is more about our cognitive weaknesses that are susceptible to misinformation infections at an individual level, and the second section is more about how larger global factors cause "infodemics" and focuses on the dynamics of the spread of misinformation. The third part of the book is focused on newer research strategies to build psychological "vaccines."
In part 1, we learn about some of the ways that our minds are susceptible to misinformation. The first chapter discuss the illusory truth effect, which is where repeated exposure to false information makes it seem truer. This also seems to be related to false memories, in that people can misremember events that they never experienced after repeated suggestions.
Chapter 2 explores how personal motivations and beliefs shape our acceptance of information. This seems to be mostly relevant for certain kinds of misinformation, such as when the evidence is involved in something political. Van der Linden thinks that people are truly motivated by accuracy, but that the motivation for accuracy competes with biases and the motivation to agree with one's social network. One of my favorite experiments presented in the book was when researchers found that people were much better at identifying misinformation that was in line with their political beliefs when they were additionally motivated by being paid for being accurate.
Chapter 3 discusses the strange conspiracy effect and what conspiracies have in common. Conspiracies seem to be particularly tough to address because they are often immune to evidence. I found it really interesting that often people who believe one conspiracy theory are much more likely to believe other conspiracy theories, even if some of those theories contradict each other.
Chapter 4 discusses why debunking is not always effective. Just being exposed to misinformation makes us more likely to believe it, and debunking efforts often fail to erase initial false beliefs. It is hard to forget false information, especially if it is not replaced by an even more satisfying narrative.
Part 2 explores more global patterns in the spread of misinformation. We see that tactics for spreading misinformation haven't changed much, but social media is so much more far reaching that it is significantly faster and more effective than in Ancient Rome. This is enhanced by social media algorithms that create echo chambers and filter bubbles and prioritize polarizing content. Those factors are more of a side-effect of trying to maximize engagement, but other actors try purposefully spread misinformation as a primary goal (usually to increase polarization). They do this by using targeted messaging and emotional manipulation.
Part 3 introduces a lot of van der Linden's own research and involvement to try to correct these problems through the new science of prebunking. This involves exposing people to weakened doses of misinformation to build resistance to future exposure. You can either do this with fact-based strategies for specific kinds of likely misinformation and contexts or you can expose people to the general tools that people use to spread misinformation. His game, "Bad News" teaches players how to recognize misinformation techniques by allowing players to became fake news masters themselves. Playing the game seems to reduce susceptibility to misinformation. He is trying to upscale this strategy to expose more people to inoculation with the goal of reaching psychological herd immunity to misinformation.
Overall, he advocates for 11 antigens to stop the spread of misinformation:
- Make the Truth More Fluent
- Incentive accuracy
- Learn the telltale sounds of conspiracy theories
- Minimize the continued influence of misinformation
- Break the virality of misinformation on social media
- Avoid echo chambers and filter bubbles
- Be aware of micro-targeting - suscpetible
- Inoculate against misinformation
- Identify and prebunk the 6 degrees of manipulation (discrediting, emotion, polarization, impersonation, conspiracy, and trolling)
- Help spread inoculation against misinformation
- Inoculate your friends of family
Discussion Questions
Have you ever believed in misinformation that you later found out was false? How did you come to realize the truth?
Some people in my life are misinformation machines, and pretty consistently share misinformation. I tell them that it isn't true, explain how to easily fact check viral stories through Snopes as a starting place. They usually don’t respond and then send me more misinformation the next day. Do you have people in your life like this, and have you found effective strategies to change their behavior?
Does anyone really like conspiracy theories? Why are they so compelling to so many people?
One of the recommendations in this book is to engage in prebunking, or preparing for misinformation before it occurs. Does anyone do this in conversation, and if so, how do you do it?
In the last book we read, The Chaos Machine, we learned how strongly social media algorithms affect the spread of misinformation. One interesting thing that was absent from this book, is how social media algorithms are able to actually shape us into being more susceptible to conspiracy theories and misinformation. We talked about this a little bit last time, but should we advocate for tighter control on social media algorithms, or is more control too limiting to freedom of speech?
What are some strategies we can use to foster social norms that prioritize accuracy of information in our communities?
I am pessimistic about even our 5-year outlook with misinformation, mainly because I think that deep fakes are getting so good so quickly that it will be virtually impossible to tell real and fake videos apart from each other within the next 2 years. Do you have ideas of good ways to quickly debunk or verify deep faked videos?