As one might say, illiteracy is bad, but misinformation is dangerous. So, fake news, in recent times, has caused a lot of issues amongst people from different religions and cultures. As a result, major companies and organizations such as Microsoft, Google, Wikipedia, Instagram, and even WHO has taken steps to prevent the spread of fake news on the internet. Now, researchers from Cambridge University recently took a slightly different approach and made a video game to help netizens debunk fake news as soon as they spot them on the web.
Apparently, your job as a Chief Disinformation Officer (CDO) in Harmony Square demands you to spread fake news about the social, political, and cultural issues in Harmony Square and troll the netizens.
“Trying to debunk misinformation after it has spread is like shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted. By pre-bunking, we aim to stop the spread of fake news in the first place,” Sander Van der Linden, the Director of Cambridge’s Social Decision-Making Lab and the senior author of the study said.
To prove that the game works, the researchers even conducted a study with close to 700 participants. First, they asked the participants to rate a few headlines and social media posts which were part true and part fake.
Then the researchers told half of those participants to play Harmony Square and told the other half to pass their time playing Tetris. Following the completion of the game, the researchers again followed the same drill and showed another set of headlines.
