Announcement : Invitation to the meeting at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin
On 4th and 5th July 2024 the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin would like to invite you to a series of talks and discussions that address today’s challenges in dealing with online misinformation
Click here for more information and registration
More than 4 billion people around the world are heading to the polls in 2024, at a time when AI-generated “deepfakes” are proliferating and populist politicians routinely undermine well-established science with disinformation. Valuable goods such as public health and the welfare of democracy are at stake. At the same time, major online platforms are retreating from their responsibilities by reducing the number of content moderators and dissolving teams devoted to election integrity.
How can the challenges of disinformation be met?
In a world where it is difficult for individuals to manage the quantity of information that is available on the internet, we want to support and extend people’s agency to make informed decisions. One way to approach this is to better understand and support people’s cognition and behaviour so they can make better-informed decisions and consume better information on- and offline.
Using recent research findings from two large projects, this two-day meeting will discuss how to boost informed decision making.
Speakers will include Ralph Hertzig, Cornelia Betsch, Stephan Lewandowsky, Philipp Schmid, Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Anastasia Kozyreva, Anna Soveri and Dawn Holford.
Thurs 4th July: 12:30-17:00
How can people’s autonomy can be restored online?
We will show that the architecture of online platforms, such as Facebook or TikTok, can be in conflict with people’s cognitive biases and limitations. We will discuss cognitive interventions to boost people’s agency, so they can recognise disinformation and resist manipulation amidst the torrent of online content.
Fri 5th July: 08:45-16:00
How can people be guided towards more informed decisions around vaccinations?
We will discuss the psychology underlying susceptibility to misinformation about vaccines and how it impacts people’s beliefs and decision-making about vaccination. We will showcase an intervention designed to help health care professionals have conversations with hesitant patients and defang the impact of misinformation about vaccines.
On day 1 we will present an online toolbox of interventions against misinformation as a resource for policy makers and others.
The toolbox is a major outcome from the “Reclaiming Individual Autonomy and Democratic Discourse Online” project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, that looks at challenges in online information environments.
We will also present evidence around:
o What are public attitudes towards online algorithmic architectures such as personalization algorithms and content moderation?
o How do online platforms influence political behaviour and democracies generally? Are platforms a factor in concerns such as declining institutional trust?
o How can we tackle online manipulation and which interventions against misinformation are effective?
On day 2 we will present the new Empathetic Refutational Interviewing technique and other resources that have been developed and shown to support informed decision making about vaccination.
The tools are the principal outcomes of the JITSUVAX project, funded by the EU Horizon 2020 program, which has focussed on how healthcare professionals can address vaccine misconceptions fuelled by misinformation in face-to-face interactions.
We will also present evidence exploring:
o How do individual attitudes to vaccination vary in healthcare professionals across countries? How does this shape their advice to their patients?
o What are the psychological attitude roots underpinning concerns about vaccination? What are the truths underlying these concerns?
o How can healthcare professionals use this knowledge to help patients identify what is important to them in decisions around their health?
Please register now and join us at this FREE event.
Registration and further information