Sander van der Linden's avatar

Sander van der Linden

@profsanderlinden.bsky.social

445 followers 107 following 53 posts

Professor of Social Psychology at University of Cambridge and Author of FOOLPROOF: Why We Fall for Misinformation and How to Build Immunity + The Psychology of Misinformation. Bad News Game.

Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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Academic freedom is in peril

@katestarbird.bsky.social exposes the disingenuous attacks on misinformation research.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

1 replies 23 reposts 31 likes

Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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Paper out led by the brilliant @cecilietraberg.bsky.social!

We test (1) a new inoculation against emotionally manipulative news & find #prebunking improves veracity discernment & (2) show how social cues make misinfo more persuasive but don't undermine inoculation.

advances.in/psychology/1...

0 replies 4 reposts 6 likes

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Kate Starbird's avatar Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social
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Murthy v. Missouri decision: SCOTUS rejects arguments that government illegally "censored" protected speech, ruling that plaintiffs lack standing. Very good day for social media moderation and for researchers caught in the crosshairs of a ludicrous accusation. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23p...

2 replies 45 reposts 125 likes

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Kate Starbird's avatar Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social
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From this article pushing back against attacks on researchers working on mis- and disinformation: “We specifically urge academics to not be silenced by voices that push back against evidence-informed argumentation under the guise of free speech.”

2 replies 42 reposts 91 likes

Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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New paper in #Nature with all-star team! Ridiculous claims are made about how misinfo isn't a problem, can't be defined, & how fighting it = censorship. Nonsense. We know the playbook. Here's why scientists need to stand up for truth & democracy!

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

0 replies 4 reposts 8 likes

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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New in @Science Yara Kyrychenko & I argue for a broader view of misinformation. Important new study finds misleading health news on FB not flagged by fact-checkers was 46X fold more damaging to vaccine intentions than outright "fake" news! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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We are hiring! Come and work at Cambridge! We are looking for a full-time Teaching Associate to work with me to help lead our social psychology teaching, research, & examining.

Please share and apply!

jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/46197/

0 replies 7 reposts 6 likes

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Cameron Martel's avatar Cameron Martel @cameronmartel.bsky.social
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🚨Out in Psych Sci🚨 Prompting accuracy can increase news sharing quality - but is this true for those on the political right? In an ADVERSARIAL COLLABORATION we find: ➡️ Acc prompts increase sharing quality of Republicans ➡️ Some evidence of greater efficacy for those on left v right

1 replies 12 reposts 25 likes

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Kate Starbird's avatar Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social
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There’s been a bad faith but successful effort on the right to redefine “censorship”. Let’s call it out & push back: 1) Government censoring people is bad. 2) Platforms moderating content is not censorship. 3) Academic researchers calling BS on harmful false claims is speech, not censorship. <cont>

2 replies 43 reposts 97 likes

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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New book out with Cambridge Press! The Psychology of Misinformation with Jon Roozenbeek. A jargon-free, thorough & light-hearted book for students, policymakers and practitioners about the science of misinformation!

Available for pre-order www.cambridge.org/us/universit...

0 replies 1 reposts 7 likes

Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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More evidence disinformation has unique fingerprints! Great computational study using many URL datasets finding that a combined model with linguistic & emotional cues has > 80% accuracy.

"Effectively discriminates between genuine & the language of fake news"

www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....

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Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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So excited the paperback version of FOOLPROOF is now available!! Thanks so much @Melanie Trecek-King for sending me this awesome t-shirt - taking off now! 🦸 Join the fight against misinformation and get your copy, leave a review, share, tell a friend!

www.amazon.co.uk/Foolproof-Fa...

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Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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Sorry guys, post was a bit full of jargon - should have explained better! But excellent summary!

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Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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Very cool & important new study which finds that inoculation enhances election credibility in US & Brazil! Both worked, but prebunking outperformed corrections over time. ▶️Prebunks increased belief Biden rightly won election among Reps by 10% pts ▶️Weakened dose more important than the forewarning

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Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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"Americans have every right to—and should—ask questions about the ways their government is protecting both the First Amendment and their national security, but those questions must be rooted in reality; the campaign against disinformation researchers is not." @wiczipedia.bsky.social

0 replies 2 reposts 4 likes

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Niels Mede's avatar Niels Mede @nielsmede.bsky.social
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How do people across the world perceive science and its role in society? How much do they trust scientists? 🌎
We did a global 67-country survey (n= 71,417) to test this, working with 239 researchers from all continents – the TISP ManyLabs study. It’s now available as preprint: osf.io/preprints/os...

1 replies 20 reposts 33 likes

Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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I thought it was a very important perspective to get out there, especially to showcase the diversity of our field and the impact of disinformation around the world. Especially brave of the students to put themselves out there!

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Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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I agree that there's prejudice about industry research, but in my personal experience, a lot of industry research is not for the intellectual journey but more about money and hitting short-term goals. Maybe that's prejudice but I base it on my experience with companies (e.g., social media).

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Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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But why is misinformation a moral panic in the US and not Brazil?

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Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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Ya just published, I really liked the nuance of this piece. Agree that this ranking is highly subjective in terms of priorities especially given the fact that all of these risks are clearly interrelated (e.g., polarization).

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Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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I guess if the claim is specific to the US (election of Trump) that makes more sense, but as you know, we were all studying misinformation long before Trump but agree it became a more mainstream concern post-2016. Not clear to me it qualifies as a moral panic though.

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Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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Actually Emory, I don't think he or I are saying that it mainly or only happens in academia. I do think there's intellectual action in industry. He's saying that there is little to NO intellectual action in academia, which is uninformed, prob because he doesn't know much about graduate school.

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Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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I was asked by @WIRED for my prediction for 2024. Here it is:

"AI-generated fake news is coming to an election near you"!

"It is one thing to dupe people with AI-generated disinformation in experiments. It’s another to experiment with our democracy"

www.wired.com/story/ai-gen...

0 replies 2 reposts 1 likes

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Alex Winter's avatar Alex Winter @alexwinter.com
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Check out The YouTube Effect website for our Impact page with talks we're giving at universities, embassies and institutions around the world. Now up is our discussion at the Cambridge University Disinformation Summit.

www.yteffect.com/impact

🎥 Bradley Williams and Adam Heath from The85

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Sander van der Linden's avatar Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social
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In 1964, Bill McGuire wrote a seminal chapter on inoculation theory. Now, 60 years later I had the honor to write another.

Here's everything we've found & have to say about inoculation against misinformation, including recent critiques & my response!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

0 replies 22 reposts 41 likes