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“Psychology can play an important role in helping us understand what audiences respond to” (Dr Jon Roozenbeek, Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab)
For newsrooms looking to employ the latest AI tools, fact-checking and social listening tools to tackle the spread of disinformation it may be time to consider a new addition to your ‘must have’ list: a psychologist.
Dr Jon Roozenbeek from the University of Cambridge’s Social-Decision Making Lab may have been kidding when he told an audience at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia that every newsroom needed a psychologist, but the thinking behind it is deadly serious.
“Psychology can play an important role in helping us understand what audiences respond to,” said Jon, who explained how a concept called ‘prebunking’ could be used by journalists to tackle the spread of mis and disinformation during this bumper year of global elections.
“You try to predict what might go viral, or what people might be exposed to in the future or near future and then you debunk it pre-emptively,” he said.
Jon's latest book ‘The Psychology of Misinformation’ was co-written with Professor Sander van der Linden who’s an expert in our new free online course: Rethinking Disinformation.
There is a withdrawal of certain groups from society because the pillars of trust that they used to believe in have crumbled...