Jon Roozenbeek

King's College London | KCL · Department of War Studies

Examples of misinformation having real-world consequences aren’t hard to find, and misinformation has been a hugely important topic of discussion in popular media, among politicians, and in scientific research. This chapter discusses whether misinformation poses a problem for society: for example, by damaging the democratic process or fostering pot...

This chapter explores the consequences of the extensive influence campaign mounted by Russia and its proxies during the Russian–Ukrainian war. It focuses on the extent to which the media discourse that emanated from the Donbas ‘Republics’ and Russia about the Euromaidan revolution, the Donbas War, the ‘Kyiv regime’, and the 2022 invasion resulted i...

This chapter examines political and ideological projects in the Donetsk and Luhansk ‘People’s Republics’ (DNR and LNR), from the outbreak of the Russian–Ukrainian War in early 2014 until after the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022. It focuses on the ‘Republics’’ leadership’s search for historical, ideological, and identity-based jus...

Research into how to best counter misinformation has enjoyed a great deal of popularity, but a discussion about how efficacy (successful lab studies) translates to effectiveness (real-world impact) is lacking. Lab studies have shown that many types of misinformation interventions are efficacious at achieving their intended outcomes (e.g., improving...

Gamification is a promising approach to reducing misinformation susceptibility. Previous research has found that “inoculation” games such as Bad News and Harmony Square help build cognitive resistance against misinformation. However, recent research has offered two important nuances: a potentially inadvertent impact of such games on people’s evalua...

In recent years, climate change discussions have shifted from the blogosphere to platform cultures like Twitter (now X). However, it remains unclear how this shift has influenced the emotional tone of these conversations. In this preregistered study, we explored differences in affective and emotional language usage between English-language climate...

Replications are important for assessing the reliability of published findings. However, they are costly, and it is infeasible to replicate everything. Accurate, fast, lower-cost alternatives such as eliciting predictions could accelerate assessment for rapid policy implementation in a crisis and help guide a more efficient allocation of scarce rep...

Ambitious and legitimate climate action requires extensive public discussion, with social media serving as an important forum. This study analyzes over 6.4 million English tweets on ‘climate action’ from 2021, posted by the general public (1.25 million users; two-thirds of tweets) and over 3,000 climate scientists working on climate change on the t...

Social identity biases, particularly the tendency to favor one’s own group (ingroup solidarity) and derogate other groups (outgroup hostility), are deeply rooted in human psychology and social behavior. However, it is unknown if such biases are also present in artificial intelligence systems. Here we show that large language models (LLMs) exhibit p...

Recent academic debate has seen the emergence of the claim that misinformation is not a significant societal problem. We argue that the arguments used to support this minimizing position are flawed, particularly if interpreted (e.g., by policymakers or the public) as suggesting that misinformation can be safely ignored. Here, we rebut the two main...

A key feature of successful vaccines is their ability to confer long-term protection, a principle equally relevant to counter-misinformation and counter-manipulation strategies. Balancing scalability with enduring effects is critical. This study tested a six-minute intervention comprising a one-minute inoculation video framed by a definition, a tes...

Can a one-minute video make any defense for online manipulation? This is a crucial question in a cultural context where Russian propaganda and Western information sources are equally present. This preregistered work replicates the brief online randomized controlled trial counter-scapegoating intervention of Roozenbeek et al. (2022) and, using the s...

There is considerable debate over whether and how social media contributes to polarization. In a correlational study (n1 = 1,447) and two digital field experiments (n2 = 494, n3 = 1,133), we examined whether (un)following hyperpartisan social media influencers contributes to polarization and misinformation sharing. We found that incentivizing Twitt...

Despite the global presence of social media platforms, the reasons why people like and share content are still poorly understood. We investigate how group identity mentions and expressions of ingroup solidarity and outgroup hostility in posts correlate with engagement on Ukrainian social media (i.e., shares, likes, and other reactions) before and a...

The spread of misinformation has become a global problem. But who falls for it? In this study, 66,242 individuals from 24 countries completed the Misinformation Susceptibility Test (MIST) and indicated their self-perceived misinformation discernment ability. Multilevel modelling showed that Generation Z, non-male, less educated, and more conservati...

Mis- and disinformation pose substantial societal challenges, and have thus become the focus of a substantive field of research. However, the field of misinformation research has recently come under scrutiny on two fronts. First, a political response has emerged, claiming that misinformation research aims to censor conservative voices. Second, some...

In recent years, many kinds of interventions have been developed that seek to reduce susceptibility to misinformation. In two preregistered longitudinal studies (N1 = 503, N2 = 673), we leverage two previously validated "inoculation" interventions (a video and a game) to address two important questions in misinformation interventions research: (1)...

In today’s polarized political climate, researchers who combat mistruths have come under attack and been labelled as unelected arbiters of truth. But the fight against misinformation is valid, warranted and urgently required.

This JAMA Insights in the Communicating Medicine series explores the concept of “prebunking,” a psychological inoculation technique that could help prevent the spread of misinformation.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine is one of the most important conflicts of the twenty-first century. With the start of military hostilities in 2014 also came an onslaught of propaganda, to both convince and confuse audiences worldwide about the war's historical and ideological underpinnings. Based on extensive research drawing on tens of thousands of n...

This chapter traces the development of the Donbas media landscape after the emergence of the ‘People’s Republics’ of Donetsk and Luhansk (DNR and LNR) in 2014. It focuses on the DNR/LNR authorities’ efforts to first break down and then rebuild local media. These efforts consisted of two phases: one of destruction and one of reconstruction. The dest...

This chapter examines newspaper discourse in the Donetsk and Luhansk ‘People’s Republics’, analysing the content of twenty-six local newspapers between the start of the Euromaidan demonstrations in late 2013 and the end of 2017. The goal of this chapter is to uncover the themes and narratives in DNR and LNR print media, and examine how these narrat...

This chapter covers Russian–Ukrainian relations during pre-Soviet times (ninth century CE until about 1921), the Soviet era (1921–1991), and the period between the fall of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence in 1991 and the Euromaidan revolution of 2014. The lands that form present-day Ukraine have been inhabited by independent-minded peopl...

Developing an online media presence is of particular importance during a military conflict. Two motivations inform the need for doing so: legitimising the grievances underlying one’s participation in the conflict and delegitimising the opponent by demoralising it or by demonising it in the eyes of third-party observers. Between 2014 and 2018, aroun...

Psychological inoculation interventions, which seek to pre-emptively build resistance against unwanted persuasion attempts, have shown promise in reducing susceptibility to misinformation. However, as many people receive news from popular, mainstream ingroup sources (e.g., a left-wing person consuming left-wing media) which may host misleading or f...

Extremist organisations often use psychological manipulation techniques to persuade new members to join. Previous research has found that people can be made more aware of such techniques through psychological “inoculation” interventions, which seek to foster resistance against unwanted persuasion attempts. We conducted a field experiment (N = 191)...

Although the serious game Bad News has been used to inoculate citizens against misinformation, it has not been formally evaluated in traditional classrooms. We therefore evaluated its impact on 516 upper-secondary Swedish students playing individually, paired, or with the whole class. Results show that students improved their ability to discern man...

Recent academic debate has seen the emergence of a position that misinformation is not a significant current problem. We believe that the arguments used to support this minimizing position are flawed, particularly if interpreted (e.g., by policymakers or the public) as evidence suggesting that misinformation can be safely ignored. Here, we rebut th...

Most people who regularly use the Internet will be familiar with words like “misinformation,” “fake news,” “disinformation,” and maybe even “malinformation.” It can appear as though these terms are used interchangeably, and they often are. However, they don’t always refer to the same types of content, and just because a news story or social media p...

This chapter discusses the individual-level and societal-level factors that underlie why people believe and share misinformation, including analytical and open-minded thinking, political partisanship, trust, political and affective polarization, psychological appeal, repetition, emotion, and intergroup sentiment. We look at misinformation belief an...

This chapter discusses how governments and supernational institutions have tried to tackle misinformation through laws and regulations. Some countries have adopted new legislation making the spread or creation of misinformation illegal; this has often been met with criticism by human rights organizations, for instance, because governments cannot ac...

This chapter looks at if and how the consumption and sharing of (mis)information are shaped by the environments that we use to communicate. Most people have heard of terms such as “echo chambers” and “filter bubbles,” but what are they exactly? And how prevalent and problematic are they in our internet-addled times? The question of whether echo cha...

This chapter reviews the evidence behind the anti-misinformation interventions that have been designed and tested since misinformation research exploded in popularity around 2016. It focuses on four types of intervention: boosting skills or competences (media/digital literacy, critical thinking, and prebunking); nudging people by making changes to...

Misinformation has only recently seen a surge in research interest and public attention, but the concept itself is much older. Not only have humans manipulated and lied to each other since the dawn of language, but animals are also known to use manipulation to achieve certain goals. This chapter provides a historical overview of misinformation. It...

This chapter discusses the ups and downs of the authors’ program of research on misinformation, which has involved creating “fake news” games and videos to reduce susceptibility to various common types of manipulation. Despite some successes, there are also substantial nuances to their work: limited cross-cultural generalizability, in some cases an...

Although misinformation exposure takes place within a social context, significant conclusions have been drawn about misinformation susceptibility through studies that largely examine judgements in a social vacuum. Bridging the gap between social influence research and the cognitive science of misinformation, we examine the mechanisms through which...

Mis- and disinformation pose substantial societal challenges, and have thus become the focus of a substantive field of research. However, the field of misinformation research has recently come under scrutiny on two fronts. First, a political response has emerged, claiming that misinformation research aims to censor conservative voices. Second, some...

The book begins by overviewing the timeline of the pandemic and how it affected life, followed by a discussion of the ethics and legal aspects of the pandemic. It then discusses behaviors during the pandemic (e.g., social distancing, protesting) before discussing experiences during the pandemic (e.g., prejudice, well-being, stress, joblessness, fam...

Vaccine misinformation endangers public health by contributing to reduced vaccine uptake. We developed a 10-minute online game to increase people's resilience to vaccine misinformation. Building on inoculation theory, the Bad Vaxx game exposes people to weakened doses of four different manipulation techniques commonly used in vaccine misinformation...

Recent research has demonstrated that actively open-minded thinking (AOT)—a cognitive thinking style characterized by the active avoidance of myside bias and overconfidence in one’s conclusions—is related to lower misinformation susceptibility. Furthermore, logic-based inoculation has proven effective at conferring resistance against misinformation...

Misinformation continues to pose a substantial societal problem, but the measurement of misinformation susceptibility has often been done using non-validated tests. Furthermore, research shows that misleading content (implied misinformation) is much more common than outright false content (explicit misinformation). However, there is very little res...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211719.][This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.211719.].

Building misinformation resilience at scale continues to pose a challenge. Gamified “inoculation” interventions have shown promise in improving people’s ability to recognize manipulation techniques commonly used in misinformation, but so far few interventions exist that tackle multimodal misinformation (e.g., videos, images). We developed a game ca...

Gamification is a promising approach to reducing misinformation susceptibility. Previous research has found that “inoculation” games such as Bad News and Harmony Square help build cognitive resistance against misinformation. However, recent research has offered two important nuances: an inadvertent impact of such games on people’s evaluation of non...

In recent years, many kinds of interventions have been developed that seek to reduce susceptibility to misinformation. In this preregistered longitudinal study (N = 503), we leverage a previously validated, video-based “inoculation” intervention to address two important questions in misinformation interventions research: 1) whether displaying addit...

Interest in the psychology of misinformation has exploded in recent years. Despite ample research, to date there is no validated framework to measure misinformation susceptibility. Therefore, we introduce Verification done, a nuanced interpretation schema and assessment tool that simultaneously considers Veracity discernment, and its distinct, meas...

Background: An infodemic is excess information, including false or misleading information, that spreads in digital and physical environments during a public health emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an unprecedented global infodemic that has led to confusion about the benefits of medical and public health interventions, with s...

Susceptibility to believing false or misleading information is associated with a range of adverse outcomes. However, it is notoriously difficult to study the link between susceptibility to misinformation and consequential real-world behaviors such as vaccine uptake. In this preregistered study, we devise a large-scale socio-spatial model that combi...

Although the COVID-19 vaccine has the potential to end the pandemic, the simultaneous infodemic has led to people questioning the safety of vaccines, lowered vaccination intentions, and given rise to dangerous health-related beliefs. Unfortunately, misinformation can be highly persuasive and misleading to the extent that even the most critical read...

An increasing number of real-world interventions aim to preemptively protect or “inoculate” people against misinformation. Inoculation research has demonstrated positive effects on misinformation resilience when measured immediately after treatment via messages, games, or videos. However, very little is currently known about their long-term effecti...

Significant greenhouse gas emission reductions can come from changing consumer behaviors. While the technical mitigation potential of such changes is known, evidence of their feasibility is less abundant. In a pre-registered international survey with mostly North American and European participants (n = 7,349), we examined the predictors and interre...

The extent to which belief in (mis)information reflects lack of knowledge versus a lack of motivation to be accurate is unclear. Here, across four experiments (n = 3,364), we motivated US participants to be accurate by providing financial incentives for correct responses about the veracity of true and false political news headlines. Financial incen...

Although the spread of misinformation is a pervasive and disruptive global problem, extant research is skewed towards “WEIRD” countries leaving questions about how to tackle misinformation in the developing world with different media and consumption patterns unanswered. We report the results of a game-based intervention against misinformation in In...

Replication is an important “credibility control” mechanism for clarifying the reliability of published findings. However, replication is costly, and it is infeasible to replicate everything. Accurate, fast, lower cost alternatives such as eliciting predictions from experts or novices could accelerate credibility assessment and improve allocation o...

Developing effective interventions to counter misinformation is an urgent goal, but it also presents conceptual, empirical, and practical difficulties, compounded by the fact that misinformation research is in its infancy. This paper provides researchers and policymakers with an overview of which individual-level interventions are likely to influen...

Extremist organisations often use psychological manipulation techniques to persuade new members to join. Previous research has found that people can be made more aware of such techniques through psychological “inoculation” interventions, which seek to foster resistance against unwanted persuasion attempts. We conducted a field experiment (N = 191)...

Social-media research has advanced insight into topics such as the spread of misinformation and how to counter it, but several factors undermine the field’s validity and feasibility. Many studies, particularly those testing interventions, are almost impossible to replicate independently because they are so expensive (see J. Roozenbeek et al. Sci....

Psychological inoculation has proven effective at reducing susceptibility to misinformation. We present a novel storytelling approach to inoculation against susceptibility to the conjunction fallacy (dmeta‐analysis = 0.82), a known cognitive predictor of conspiracy beliefs. In Study 1 (Pilot; N = 161), a narrative inoculation (vs. control) reduced...

BACKGROUND An infodemic is an excess of information of varying quality, including false or misleading information and/or ambiguous information, that spreads in digital and physical environments during a public health emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an unprecedented global infodemic that has led to confusion about the benefi...

Background An infodemic is excess information, including false or misleading information, that spreads in digital and physical environments during a public health emergency. The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an unprecedented global infodemic that has led to confusion about the benefits of medical and public health interventions, with su...

Understanding how vaccine hesitancy relates to online behavior is crucial for addressing current and future disease outbreaks. We combined survey data measuring attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine with Twitter data in two studies (N1 = 464 Twitter users, N2 = 1,600 Twitter users) with pre-registered hypotheses to examine how real-world social med...

Developing effective interventions to counter misinformation is an urgent goal, but it also presents conceptual, empirical, and practical difficulties, compounded by the fact that misinformation research is in its infancy. This paper provides researchers and policymakers with an overview of which individual-level interventions are likely to have an...

Online misinformation continues to have adverse consequences for society. Inoculation theory has been put forward as a way to reduce susceptibility to misinformation by informing people about how they might be misinformed , but its scalability has been elusive both at a theoretical level and a practical level. We developed five short videos that in...

The unchecked spread of misinformation is recognised as an increasing threat to public, scientific, and democratic health. Online networks are a contributing cause of this spread, with echo chambers and polarization indicative of the interplay between the selective search behaviours of users, and the reinforcement processes within the system those...

In recent years, numerous psychological interventions have been developed to reduce susceptibility to misinformation. Inoculation theory has become an increasingly common framework for reducing susceptibility to both individual examples of misinformation (issue-based inoculation) and to the techniques and strategies that are commonly used to mislea...

Much like a viral contagion, misinformation can spread rapidly from one individual to another. Inoculation theory offers a logical basis for developing a psychological "vaccine" against misinformation. We discuss the origins of inoculation theory, starting with its roots in the 1960s as a "vaccine for brainwash," and detail the major theoretical an...

Misinformation presents a significant societal problem. To measure individuals’ susceptibility to misinformation and study its predictors, researchers have used a broad variety of ad-hoc item sets, scales, question framings, and response modes. Because of this variety, it remains unknown whether results from different studies can be compared (e.g.,...

According to recent work, subtly nudging people to think about accuracy can reduce the sharing of COVID-19 misinformation online (Pennycook et al., 2020). The authors argue that inattention to accuracy is a key factor behind the sharing of misinformation. They further argue that “partisanship is not, apparently, the key factor distracting people fr...

Misinformation can present a significant threat to public health. Given the scope of the problem, researchers have proposed and developed a variety of approaches to reduce the spread of and susceptibility to health-related misinformation. We review 3 high-profile psychological solutions used to combat the spread of health misinformation: post-hoc c...

According to recent work, subtly nudging people to think about accuracy can reduce the sharing of COVID-19 misinformation online (Pennycook et al., 2020). The authors argue that inattention to accuracy is a key factor behind the sharing of misinformation. They further argue that “partisanship is not, apparently, the key factor distracting people fr...