| Faculty of Philosophy, Knowledge, Spaces, and Media, Research

New manual to counteract fake news

Misinformation damages society in many ways and has consequences for public health, the environment and democracy. But correcting misinformation is difficult! To counteract precisely this, 22 researchers - including Philipp Schmid, a psychologist at the University of Erfurt - have investigated so-called "fake news" and have now summarised their research on effective corrective measures in a new handbook.

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In doing so, they are making this research accessible to all those who deal with the problem of misinformation. Their handbook summarises the findings of decades of research into combating misinformation and offers a wide range of prevention strategies, interventions and corrective measures. Co-author Philipp Schmid says: "The Debunking Handbook has provided users with evidence-based tools for years in the fight against myths surrounding climate change, vaccination and tobacco consumption. In the middle of the corona pandemic and in anticipation of a vaccine, the update of this manual comes at just the right time". And his colleague Professor Stephan Lewandowsky from the Department of Cognitive Science at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Bristol adds: "The authors of the book were invited to contribute on the basis of their scientific status in their field. We believe that the new handbook reflects the scientific consensus on how to combat misinformation".

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