The Bad News Game is a multiple award-winning fake news intervention aimed at building psychological resistance against online misinformation. The intervention is a theory-driven social impact game developed in collaboration with the Dutch media collective DROG and graphic design agency Gusmanson.
The game is freely available for non-commercial use and can be accessed here: www.getbadnews.com
The game draws on the theory of psychological inoculation: just as exposure to a weakened strain of a pathogen triggers the production of antibodies to cultivate immunity against a virus, the same can reasonably be achieved with information. Specifically, the game forewarns and exposes players to severely weakened doses of the stategies that are used in the production of fake news to stimulate the production 'mental antibodies' against misinformation.
If you are interested in our research on the game, please find an up-to-date list of all of our scientific publications below (open-access, open data):
Publications
- Roozenbeek, J., Traberg, C.S., van der Linden, S. (2022). Technique-based inoculation against real-world misinformation. Royal Society Open Science 9, 211719.
- Basol, M., Roozenbeek, J., Berriche, M., Uenal, F., McClanahan, W.P., & van der Linden, S. (2021). Towards psychological herd immunity: Cross-cultural evidence for two prebunking interventions against COVID-19 misinformation. Big Data & Society
- Maertens, R., Roozenbeek, J., Basol, M., & van der Linden, S. (2020). Long-term effectiveness of inoculation against misinformation: Three longitudinal experiments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied.
- Roozenbeek, J., Maertens, R., McClanahan, W.P., & van der Linden, S. (2020). Differentiating item and testing effects in inoculation research on online misinformation: Solomon revisited. Educational and Psychological Measurement.
- van der Linden, S., & Roozenbeek, J. (2020). Psychological inoculation against fake news. In R. Greifeneder, M. Jaffé, E.J. Newman, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), The psychology of fake news: Accepting, sharing, and correcting misinformation (pp 147-169). London, UK: Psychology Press.
- Roozenbeek, J., van der Linden, S., & Nygren, T. (2020). Prebunking interventions based on inoculation theory can reduce susceptibility to misinformation across cultures. The Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review 1(2).
- 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), 1-9.
- 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.
Handbook
- Roozenbeek, J., & van der Linden, S. (2021).
NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence. ISBN: 978-9934-564-49-9.
List of Awards
Royal Holland Society of Siences (Winner of the Brouwers "Trust" Prize, 2020)
Frank Prize in Public Interest Communications (University of Florida, 2020)
Runner-up, BX Award Oustanding Behavioural Science Research, UK Behavioural Insights Team (2020)
Honorable Mention, Best Game, Fast Company's Innovation By Design Awards (2019)
Nomination, Exhibit and Beazley's Design of the Year Award (2018).
Nomination, Life Interrupted Exhibit, Australian Museum of Discovery (2018).
Translations
In collaboration with the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, The Bad News game has been made available in 15 languages worldwide. You can access the international versions of the game below:
Swedish (www.badnewsgame.se)
German (www.getbadnews.de)
Greek (www.getbadnews.gr)
Polish (www.getbadnews.pl)
Bosnian (www.getbadnewsbosnia.com)
Czech (www.getbadnews.cz)
Dutch (www.slechtnieuws.nl)
Esperanto (www.badnewsesperanto.com)
Moldovan-Romanian (www.getbadnewsmoldova.com)
Romanian (www.getbadnews.ro)
Serbian (www.getbadnews.rs)
Slovenian (www.getbadnews.si)
Russian (www.getbadnewsrussian.com)
Ukrainian (www.getbadnewsukraine.com)
Sample of Blogs and Popular Media
Prebunking: staying ahead of the curve on misinformation - OECD
Prebunking: how to build resilience against online misinformation - Reuters
Don't Just Debunk, Prebunk - SPSP Blog
"Vaccinating against bunk: curbing viral misinformation" - APS
A new way to inoculate people - Behavioral Scientist
Can "inoculation" build broad-scale resistance to misinformation? - Google Jigsaw
A Psychological Vaccine against Fake News - Microbiologist
Can you outsmart a troll? TED-ED Video
Could this be a cure for fake news? BBC Future
Spot Fake News by Making it - NPR
CNN Interview with Dr Jon Roozenbeek (TV)
The Economist with Dr van der Linden (Documentary)
PNAS - Finding a vaccine for misinformation
British Psychological Society - Vaccinating against viruses of the mind
Churchill College - Pre-bunking: the first line of defence?
Collaborations
We have worked with the following partners on testing and implementing our interventions worldwide:
WhatsApp/Facebook (Join this Group)
Google/Jigsaw (inoculation.science videos)
The U.S. State Department (Harmony Square & Cat Park)
The UK Foreign Office (Bad News)
The UK Cabinet Office, WHO, and UN (GoViral!)
The Behavioural Insights Team
If you are interested in translating or working with the Bad News game, please contact Dr Jon Roozenbeek or Prof van der Linden for more information.