Understanding Misinformation and Disinformation

The spread of misinformation is of increasing interest to researchers around the world. It’s been tied to the 2016 and 2020 US elections, Brexit, the COVID pandemic, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some have called the glut of misinformation a pandemic in its own right. A researcher at Cambridge University suggests that, as with other pandemics, the solution just might be a vaccine. That’s the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Sander van der Linden. Van der Linden is Professor of Social Psychology in Society in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. His research interests center around the psychology of human judgment, communication, and decision-making. In particular, he’s interested in the influence and persuasion process and how people gain resistance to persuasion (by misinformation) through psychological inoculation. That’s the focus of his new book, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity.