The Bad News Game (VJI-M1-02-EN)

• Increasing media literacy.
• Building psychological resistance against online misinformation by psychological inoculation.

First-liners and students.

• Step 1: Shortly introduce the subject of mis- and disinformation to the individual/group and introduce the point of the game. Information on this can be found in the official information sheet of the Bad News Game and can be found as a handout for this activity.
•  Step 2: Instruct the individual/group to go to www.getbadnews.com. If the activity is done in a group setting, pair up members in smaller groups of two.
•  Step 3: Instruct the individual/group to play the game. The facilitator should remain engaged in order to answer potential questions about the game. However, keep in mind that the game should be played first and will be discussed in detail later. If the questions are in-depth questions on the subject, the facilitator should refrain from answering and instead tell them this will be discussed after finishing the game.
•  Step 4: Have a (group) discussion in which you reflect on the themes of the game (impersonation, emotion, polarisation, conspiracy, discrediting and trolling).

• A computer with an internet connection.

• Inoculation through a computer game.

The game is meant to expose the player to weakened doses of the arguments and strategies used in the production and dissemination of mis- and disinformation. It is important to keep this in mind while playing the game / the students are playing the game. It is possible that students do not understand the subject matter. Clear up possible confusions during or after the game.

The game:

www.getbadnews.com

Sources:

Basol, M., Roozenbeek, J., Berriche, M., Uenal, F., McClanahan, W., & Van Der Linden, S. (2021). Towards psychological herd immunity: Cross-cultural evidence for two prebunking interventions against COVID-19 misinformation. Big Data & Society, 8(1), 205395172110138. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211013868

Basol, M., Roozenbeek, J., & Van Der Linden, S. (2020). Good News about Bad News: Gamified Inoculation Boosts Confidence and Cognitive Immunity Against Fake News. Journal of Cognition, 3(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.5334/joc.91

Maertens, R., Roozenbeek, J., Basol, M., & Van Der Linden, S. (2021). Long-term effectiveness of inoculation against misinformation: Three longitudinal experiments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 27(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000315

Roozenbeek, J., Maertens, R., McClanahan, W., & Van Der Linden, S. (2020). Disentangling Item and Testing Effects in Inoculation Research on Online Misinformation: Solomon revisited. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 81(2), 340–362. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164420940378

Roozenbeek, J., Traberg, C. S., & Van Der Linden, S. (2022). Technique-based inoculation against real-world misinformation. Royal Society Open Science, 9(5). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211719

Roozenbeek, J., & Van Der Linden, S. (2018). The fake news game: actively inoculating against the risk of misinformation. Journal of Risk Research, 22(5), 570–580. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2018.1443491

Roozenbeek, J., Van Der Linden, S., & Nygren, T. (2020). Prebunking interventions based on the psychological theory of “inoculation” can reduce susceptibility to misinformation across cultures. The Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-008

University of Cambridge (n.d.). Bad news game. Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab. https://www.sdmlab.psychol.cam.ac.uk/research/bad-news-game

Van Der Linden, S., & Roozenbeek, J. (2020). Psychological inoculation against fake news. In Routledge eBooks (pp. 147–169). https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429295379-11

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