We present Harmony Square, a short, free-to-play online game in which players learn how political misinformation is produced and spread. We find that the game confers psychological resistance against manipulation techniques commonly used in political misinformation: players from around the world find social media content making use of these techniques significantly less reliable after playing, are more confident in their ability to spot such content, and less likely to report sharing it with others in their network.
Read MoreThe first video game I taught with this year is The Bad News Game. The game chooses simple topics that most of us are too familiar with to illustrate the patterns followed by many propagandists. Any time you try to act morally, the game will stop you and make you act like a troll.
Read MoreOne way to achieve this is through gamification and serious games. Serious games are designed to educate and nudge a change in behaviour and not just entertain. Critically, games are also played voluntarily and require skill rather than luck.
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