Bad News: the game researchers hope will ‘vaccinate’ public against fake news
Fake news is already an entire industry, an anti-democratic weapon, a movie, a play, an insult and a cliche.
Now it is being turned into a game – to help people understand its wiles and deceptions.
Cambridge researchers have built an online game, simply titled Bad News, in which players compete to become “a disinformation and fake news tycoon”. By shedding light on the shady practices, they hope the game will “vaccinate” the public, and make people immune to the spread of untruths.
“The idea is that once you’ve seen the tactics, and used them in the game, you build up resistance,” said Sander van der Linden, director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. “We want the public to learn what these people are doing by walking in their shoes.”
The game distills the art of undermining the truth into six key strategies. Once a player has demonstrated a knack for each, they are rewarded with a badge.
Is there a danger the game might turn players to the dark side? “I think it’s worth taking the risk given how many people we could educate with this.”
The work is due to be published in the Journal of Risk Research.
See the full story here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/feb/20/bad-news-the-game-researchers-hope-will-vaccinate-public-against-fake-news