Context
During the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been exposed to various forms of misinformation.
The European Commission is taking steps to debunk many of these unfounded and sometimes life-threatening claims:
- Policy paper – tackling COVID-19 disinformation
- Fighting covid disinformation’ webpage
- Report on fake news and online disinformation
Goals
This project aims to assess the effectiveness of different strategies to fight COVID-19 misinformation: how can these interventions best reduce the impact and spread of misinformation?
For some people, exposing the poor credibility of the source might work best. Other people might be convinced by an explanation of how the misinformation rhetoric works and by tips on how to spot it.
The project explores how to target different strategies to specific groups of individuals. If applied responsibly, targeting could strengthen the fight against misinformation.
Methods
To reach this goal, we are conducting a literature review and an online experiment.
Outcomes
The insights we generate will benefit the Commission’s overall fight against misinformation.
- Report: "Covid-19 misinformation: Preparing for future crises".
- Experimental paper: " Investigating the role of source and source trust in prebunks and debunks of misinformation in online experiments across four EU countries "
- Policy Brief: "How the European Commission can use behavioural insights to combat misinformation"
Latest knowledge from this Project
More information
Coordinators | Hendrik BRUNS |
Participants | François DESSART Laura SMILLIE René VAN BAVEL Michal KRAWCZYK Stephan LEWANDOWSKY Myrto PANTAZI Gordon PENNYCOOK Philipp SCHMID |
Funded under | JRC Exploratory Research programme |
Originally Published | Last Updated | 03 Aug 2020 | 13 Sep 2024 |
Knowledge service | Metadata | Behavioural insights | Behavioural insights for communication |
Digital Europa Thesaurus (DET) | consumer behaviourCOVID-19disinformationclimate change |
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