"A biological vaccine administers a small dose of the disease to build immunity. Similarly, inoculation theory suggests that exposure to a weak or demystified version of an argument makes it easier to refute when confronted with more persuasive claims," says Dr. Sander van der Linden, Director of Cambridge University's Social Decision-Making Lab.
"If you know what it is like to walk in the shoes of someone who is actively trying to deceive you, it should increase your ability to spot and resist the techniques of deceit. We want to help grow 'mental antibodies' that can provide some immunity against the rapid spread of misinformation. We aren't trying to drastically change behavior, but instead trigger a simple thought process to help foster critical and informed news consumption."
I've played the game (https://www.getbadnews.com/#intro) and it's not bad (although the primary colour scheme is a bit blaaargh my eyes the goggles they do nothing on a large monitor). It's fairly obvious that this is intended as a teaching tool, so I wonder if one intended more as an actual game would be more effective. Something like NewsThump's card game, for instance (http://game.newsthump.com/). People tend to like games a lot more than they like people telling them what to think. Also, methinks the kind of people who deliberately set out to play a fake news-spotting game are probably going to be reasonably effective at it anyway : I don't see this as having much potential to reach the masses in its current form.
Perverse and not entirely serious idea : encode it as a game on social media. Have the network deliberately inject fake news into the feed and every so often present a multiple choice where users try and identify the known fakes from the known genuines. Give 'em meaningless badges the more they get right. Make people compete to win more badges, because meaningless badges, like followers, are the shizzle.
Obligatory cautionary quote from Plato on teaching people critical thinking :
I don’t suppose that it has escaped your notice that, when young people get their first taste of arguments, they misuse it by treating it as a kind of game of contradiction. They imitate those who’ve refuted them by refuting others themselves, and, like puppies, they enjoy dragging and tearing those around them with their arguments. Then, when they’ve refuted many and been refuted by them in turn, they forcefully and quickly fall into disbelieving what they believed before.
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-fake-news-vaccine-online-game.html
Does it cause autism?
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