Anicet Mbida 07:00, May 19, 2022

Every day, Anicet Mbida makes us discover an innovation that could well change the way we consume.

This Thursday, he is interested in a breakthrough in the fight against fake news, a way of "vaccinating" against misinformation.

This morning, a project that could do a lot of good in a world where false information abounds.

We would have found a way to "vaccinate" against misinformation.

So, it's not a sting, rather a technique that should make us both less gullible and above all less sensitive to all the Fake news.

And this technique is exactly the same as that used to create vaccines.

That is to say, we will mix proven facts with a small dose of disinformation.

For example: perfectly documented articles, but where only one or two details are grossly wrong.

By reading this type of article again and again, we end up developing antibodies, a critical spirit, which will prevent us from taking everything at face value.

Has it been proven?

Are there any examples?

Yes.

This was demonstrated in a study published by researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Yale.

They first presented scientific facts about global warming to a sample of 2,000 people.

Then, they gave them access to a site full of climate-skeptic theses.

In the end, of course, most no longer believed in scientific arguments.

A typical operation of “fake news.

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Then they tested the vaccine technique on a second group.

Suddenly, before showing them the climate skeptical sites, they slipped several false information into the scientific articles.

By also explaining why some had an interest in manipulating the facts or publishing false things.

Result: this second group was much less receptive to climato-skeptical theses.

And how could we use this technique on a daily basis to vaccinate people?

They are working on a kind of detox newsletter that would work on the same model: facts, small gross errors and a decryption on the interest of manipulating what has been published.

Obviously this assumes that we read the entire newsletter.

And that in addition, we do it over time.

Which is far from obvious.

But it is a technique that could be used at school to develop critical thinking from an early age.