Feeling irritable and exhausted because you didn’t get enough sleep? This could lead to you talking back to your colleague in an unpleasant way. On the other hand, the euphoria and joy of receiving some good news may cause you to share it further before you’ve thought about it properly. The emotions we feel have a huge impact on us. When they are strong, we tend to act more impulsively – not only in the real world, such as when interacting with another person, but also on the Internet. Therefore, emotions are an important influence on susceptibility to misinformation.
Are we afraid of disinformation online?
According to a report from a nationwide survey of students and parents from Poland (Nastolatki 3.0), only 25 percent of students are concerned about misinformation on the Internet. In comparison, this concern is shared by as many as 60 percent of parents surveyed. At the same time, only 37 percent of students under the age of 15 rate their competence in searching and analyzing information on the Internet highly (ySKILLS, 2022).
What is the FAKE kNOw MORE program for?
We decided to address the problem of misinformation in our new FAKE kNOw MORE program. We want to show young people, by building greater self-awareness, how to act more deliberately on the Internet and outside it. That’s why, together with the Demagog Association, we have created the publication „Understand Emotions. Become Resilient to Disinformation”, which contains activity scenarios and introductory materials for educators. They show the various psychological mechanisms that are triggered in us when we come into contact with false information, as well as tips for protecting ourselves from it. The focal point of each scenario is self-reflection – looking at yourself and your reactions.
In the materials, we explore such topics as:
- emotions and the signals they give us in the context of disinformation,
- ways of thinking that are triggered in us when we come into contact with disinformation and how they can help us protect ourselves from it (so-called slow and fast thinking),
- cognitive biases and other „pitfalls of thinking” that affect how we look at the world,
- well-being and mindfulness, allowing us to maintain a healthy distance, and consequently giving us a better response to disinformation,
- our social media activities, that is, both responding to information and creating content.
In addition, together with partners from the Czech organization Fakescape, we have created an educational game „Octogram” as part of our publication. This demonstrates the mechanisms governing social media in a simple yet attractive way.
Our materials are aimed at educators from day-support centers who, through close relationships with their charges, can effectively support their acquisition of critical thinking skills, as well as teachers and other educators interested in the topic. The materials are intended for children and young people aged 10-12 and 13-15.
We run the program internationally, in Spain, Romania and the Czech Republic, and our materials will soon be available in the languages of these countries as well.
We encourage you to download this publication and build greater self-awareness together.
The FAKE kNOw MORE program is run by the School with Class Foundation in cooperation with the Demagog Association (Poland), Fakescape (Czech Republic), Smilemundo (Spain), and Adfaber (Romania) with support from the EMIF managed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund (EMIF) rests with the authors and does not necessarily reflect the position of the EMIF and the Fund’s partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the European University Institute.