No one wants to know how the sausage is made—and this is as true about processed meat as it is misinformation on the web. But members of Cambridge’s Social Decision Making Lab are hoping to reform conspiracy theory believers in the same way that PETA turns meat eaters into vegetarians: by showing them what goes into creating and spreading misinformation.
It’s not easy to expose people to what they’d rather not know, so Cambridge’s lab created a game called Go Viral, where users learn how coronavirus-related conspiracy theories spread online. The game’s goal is to help players become versed in the tactics of fearmongering and successfully use misinformation to go viral within the game’s universe.
Go Viral is based off a similar project the group launched in 2018. That game, called Bad News, taught players how to create a booming fake news network and has been played one million times to date. Researchers on the project found that playing the game reduced how much a…
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Source : fastcompany.com
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