What Works to Build Mental Immunity
Research points to dozens of things we can do to cultivate mental immunity, browse to learn more below!
If you’re an educator, check out our original What Works to Build Mental Immunity page for educators.
Mental Immunity Framing
This is the use of the “mental immune system” analogy to help us understand and improve our thinking.
Mental Immunity Framing
The mental immunity framework encourages all of us to grapple with our susceptibility to bad ideas and false information. It employs the analogy of minds functioning like informational immune systems. (1) Just as immune systems protect bodily integrity by identifying and neutralizing pathogens, the mind’s immune system safeguards cognitive integrity by protecting us from “mind bugs.” This analogy can galvanize interest in better thinking–because everyone benefits when we “debug” our minds!
Applications
- Ask your friends if they think minds can be infected with “mind bugs.” Discuss with them the following: If computers can be infected with bugs, can’t minds too? If so, how do we protect our minds? What would a healthy mental “immune system” look like? What would it do?
- Try to reflect on a time that your mind’s immune system failed you (i.e. when you fell for a false claim).
- Invite each other to suggest ways to “build up” mental immunity. Discuss the 10 principles of mental immunity.
Notes
When new information is presented to us, questions and doubts typically arise, especially if the new information doesn’t align with what we already know. In this way, questions and doubts function like antibodies and immune cells to check ideas before incorporating them into our understanding. Just like the immune system screens foreign materials and neutralizes threats like viruses, the mind does the same for ideas. And just as our bodily immune system can be compromised, leading us to get sick as a result of a pathogen overcoming our immune defenses, so too can our mental immune systems sometimes fail to detect and reject bad ideas. We can see in our daily lives our minds get rid of toxic or bad information and hold onto helpful information. We all need to hone our skill of discerning what information to keep and what to reject. Just like your body gets better at rejecting illness, your mind can get better at disregarding harmful information.
Learn More
For a deeper understanding, read our Declaration on Mental Immunity.
Reference List
Disinformation Awareness
Raise awareness of the prevalence of disinformation online.
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Disinformation Awareness
We all need to be aware that disinformation and manipulative content awaits us online. We need to think about why people post things. Who is behind the information? Why are they sharing it? Are they trying to influence me? When we don’t ask such questions, we remain vulnerable; when we do, we grow more independent and resilient. We need to all help one another develop “disinformation awareness” – a healthy level of skepticism about online content.
Applications
- Use questions to cultivate disinformation awareness in your peers. For example, ask them: Do people put things online to get us to do stuff? Like what? Are they trying to help you or fool you? How can you tell?
- Find and discuss online examples with friends. Would you trust this source? Why or why not?
- Learn to recognize the Tactics of Disinformation. (1)
Notes
It’s important to understand the motive(s) behind messages. Signs of manipulative intent can be subtle, but resilient human beings pick up on them. Monitoring for underlying intent should become second nature. It’s important, though, to not become cynical or indiscriminately skeptical; there are many genuinely honest and helpful sources out there. We all have to find the right balance of questioning sources and trusting them based on their track record.
Many find these categories useful:“Misinformation misleads. It is false, but not created or shared with the intention of causing harm. Disinformation deceives. It is deliberately created to mislead, harm, or manipulate… Malinformation sabotages. It is based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.” (CISA)
Learn More
“Finland is winning the war on fake news. What it’s learned may be crucial to Western democracy” (3)
Reference List
1. https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/tactics-of-disinformation_508.pdf
2. These are the definitions from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Information Manipulation infographic – https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/information_manipulation_infographic_508.pdf
3. https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2019/05/europe/finland-fake-news-intl/
Bias Awareness
Raise awareness of the existence and influence of cognitive biases so as to counteract them.
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Bias Awareness
If you’re human, biases distort your thinking. In fact, there are over 200 documented cognitive biases! (1) Fortunately, this doesn’t mean that our thinking is hopelessly corrupt. The takeaway is that we need to guard against some all-too-human tendencies. If we’re humble and careful, we can compensate for our biases and become clearer, more capable thinkers. For example, knowing that we’re prone to confirmation bias can make us less certain and more attentive to disconfirming evidence. We’re also prone to imagine causal connections that don’t exist. Knowing this, you can make a habit of asking, “Do we really know that this causes that?”
Applications
- Focus on understanding a few of the most common biases, like confirmation bias, negativity bias, motivated reasoning, and the availability heuristic, along with examples. Yourbias.is is a fantastic resource.
- Ask yourself and peers questions, “Could biases be coloring our views about this? Which one(s) might be at work here, and how might they be distorting our judgment?” Encourage them to raise such questions themselves.
- To mitigate picking up media bias, follow a diverse array of news sources, both liberal and conservative. AllSides.com is very helpful for this.
Notes
It’s important to learn about biases in an active way. Simply memorizing lists of biases won’t help you understand or apply that knowledge. Be aware that biases creep into everyone’s thinking. There’s no shame in this: it just means we need to practice spotting them, and then adjusting. Often, this means dialing down the conviction influenced by the bias. It’s not wrong for you to have biases but being able to recognize them and then being open to change is most important. Biases are everywhere, so the better we understand them and can detect them, the better we become at thinking clearly.
Reference List
Logical Fallacies Awareness
Raise awareness of the existence and influence of logical fallacies so as to counteract them.
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Logical Fallacies Awareness
Understanding how people often advance illogical arguments, and knowing how to spot such arguments, can help confer disinformation immunity. It’s crucial to learn how to identify fallacies and refrain from using them. We all should be on the lookout for the use of fallacies in the news media, and in our own work. Some of the most common logical fallacies include emotional appeal, ad hominem attacks, strawman argumentation, cherry-picking, and the tendency to confuse correlation with causation (a.k.a. post hoc ergo propter hoc).
Applications
- Reference and share Yourlogicalfallacyis.com and the Purdue OWL are both great sources of explanations & examples.
- Train your mind to avoid logical fallacies by searching for them in your work and arguments. When you notice yourself using them, reevaluate your thinking process and how you’re reaching your conclusions. This might lead to your changing your mind about something; that’s critical thinking in action!
- Look out for real-world examples of fallacies: in the news, advertisements, and social media, keep an eye out for how fallacies are used in real-life situations. Encourage your peers to analyze and debunk them. Snopes, RumorGuard, and NewGuard’s Reality Check may be good sources for finding examples.
Notes
Logical fallacies can be tricky. Sometimes arguments combine multiple fallacies or have some valid reasoning alongside the fallacy. Identifying a fallacy doesn’t automatically mean the whole argument is wrong. The key is to develop critical thinking skills to analyze arguments, spot weaknesses (including fallacies), and evaluate the evidence presented. We need to work to train our mind to recognize fallacies and understand whether it is still useful information or if it is completely untrustable because of the fallacy.
Socratic Questions
Use the Socratic method to empower the innate cognitive capacity to seek truth.
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Socratic Questions
Socratic questions (1) are a good way to prompt deeper and more careful thinking. For thousands of years, philosophers have employed them to spark curiosity, foster critical thinking, and build immunity to bad ideas. Socratic questions promote accountable thought, cognitive autonomy, and active open-minded thinking (AOT).
Applications
- Be open to asking clarifying questions when seeking to understand someone’s perspective.
- Foster a culture of asking each other why we believe what we do. Can we all try to examine one another’s reasons? Are they good reasons? Why or why not? What assumptions are we making? What are the alternatives?
- Our exchanges should always be friendly, affirming, and supportive, never combative. The infographic included here should be a helpful starting point. (2).
Notes
Use questions to draw out what people think themseleves, not what they’ve adopted from someone else. (3) Then use follow-up questions to help them examine those ideas. Be careful, though, not to make people defensive. The interaction should be non-confrontational. Give people time and space to think things through. Socratic questions should illuminate assumptions. They can call attention to gaps in arguments and reveal the limits of our knowledge. They should foster skepticism of simplistic answers. Wielded skillfully, they will encourage people to be active, curious, and exploratory thinkers.
Learn More
What is the Socratic Method (YouTube video)
Reference List
1. Wikipedia, Socratic questioning
2. Jame Bowman, Socratic questions revisited [infographic]
3. Colorado State University, The Socratic Method: Fostering Critical Thinking
Critical Ignoring
Critical Ignoring involves strategically disregarding misleading and low-quality information whilst choosing information to focus on.
Critical Ignoring
Critical Ignoring involves strategically disregarding misleading and low-quality information and choosing which information to focus on. This competency is essential in the digital age, where the vastness of accessible information demands that we efficiently allocate our limited attention to stay informed and maintain mental immunity against manipulative content. (1)
Applications 2
- Let’s make it a goal to create a less distracting digital environment by utilizing self-nudging (3) strategies. Examples include setting time limits on social media, limiting notifications to reduce interruptions, and employing tools to block distracting websites. This should empower all of us to take control of our digital spaces, enhancing focus and reducing the allure of low-quality information.
- Practice lateral reading (4), which involves verifying the credibility of information by checking other reliable sources rather than solely relying on one source of information.
- “Do Not Feed the Trolls” Heuristic (5): don’t engage with online trolls and malicious actors who aim to disrupt and provoke. Try to block and report such individuals rather than retaliating. Blocking and reporting will deprive online trolls of the attention they seek, maintaining a healthier online environment.
Notes
“Critical” is a key modifier; we don’t want to ignore information generally, as that would most likely reinforce cognitive biases. Importantly, critical ignoring is not just about avoiding misinformation but also about managing one’s cognitive resources effectively.
Learn More
To navigate the dangers of the web, you need critical thinking – but also critical ignoring
Reference List
- When using the phrase “manipulative content” we’re referring to both deliberately manipulative information, and information that may not be intentionally manipulative but is inherently manipulative insofar as it misleads or misdirects our critical thinking faculties.
- Current Directions in Psychological Science 2023, Critical Ignoring as a Core Competence for Digital Citizens (source of the above image); article also summarized here: Forget Critical Thinking. It’s Critical Ignoring That Will Keep You Sane (Positive Prescription blog)
- Perspectives on Psychological Science 2017, Nudging and Boosting: Steering or Empowering Good Decisions
- Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education 2019, Lateral reading and the nature of expertise: Reading less and learning more when evaluating digital information
- The Conversation, ‘Don’t feed the trolls’ really is good advice – here’s the evidence
Fact Checking
Fact-checking is crucial for evaluating the credibility of information encountered in a digital landscape where misinformation & disinformation are rampant.
Fact Checking
Fact-checking (1) is crucial for evaluating the credibility of information encountered online. In a digital landscape where misinformation and disinformation are rampant, fact-checking helps individuals discern truth from falsehood and make informed decisions.
Applications
- Practice lateral reading (2). This is a strategy for investigating who’s behind an unfamiliar online source by leaving the webpage, searching for the source in a new tab, and seeing what various reputable sources have to say about the unknown source. It can also mean researching a topic by quickly exploring what multiple sources have to say about it.
- Try the SIFT method (3). SIFT stands for Stop; Investigate the source; Find better coverage; and Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context. This is a useful way to remember the key components of fact-checking.
- Luckily, we don’t need to do all the fact-checking ourselves, because there are many nonpartisan, professional fact-checking organizations out there. Some of these include FactCheck.org, AP Fact Check, Reuters Fact Check, and many more that are tracked by the Duke Reporters’ Lab.
Notes
Fact-checking can often feel overwhelming, as it’s not realistic to fact-check every bit of new information we encounter. The ability to fact-check when needed, though, is now an essential life skill. Given that there will always be more information than we can critically fact-check, maintain a skeptical perspective when consuming news media, especially from sources that are untrustworthy or unfamiliar.
Learn More
“Don’t be fooled… fact check!” Fact-checking guide by Melanie Trecek-King of Thinking Is Power
RumorGuard’s Five Factors, five factors to consider when evaluating the credibility of a claim
Reference List
1. for a more comprehensive guide to fact-checking see Thinking Is Power’s Don’t be fooled… fact check!
2. Civic Online Reasoning, Sort Fact from Fiction Online with Lateral Reading
3. Research Guides at Clark College, Evaluating Information: SIFT (The Four Moves)
Debunking
To debunk something is to prove it false or misleading by highlighting specific factual inaccuracies and/or deceptive techniques.
Debunking
To debunk something is to show that it doesn’t make sense or isn’t true. An ideally rational person will cease to believe in false information or a misconception that has been properly debunked. Unfortunately, beliefs are ‘sticky’: people often have trouble parting with them. For this reason, debunking often fails to correct misbelief; nonetheless, it is not useless (1).
Applications
- Commend your friends and family for changing their minds or self-correcting when they were initially wrong. Importantly, don’t “rub it in” this could make them more resistant to changing their minds in the future.
- When debunking a claim, avoid the illusory truth effect (2) by using a “truth sandwich.” This involves first stating the facts to replace the misconception, then stating the myth (once) and explaining why it’s wrong, and finally stating the truth again so it’s the last thing people remember.
We highly recommend Debunk.org’s Infoshield Resilience to Disinformation mini course
Notes
Debunking commonly held misconceptions can be difficult because beliefs are often ‘sticky.’ It is important to navigate this process of debunking in a non-judgemental manner. Avoid mocking others’ views, belittling their opinion, or generally engaging in adversarial debate. Instead, show empathy and compassion. Everybody falls into the traps of misinformation; it is important to be open to changing your mind when there’s good reason to do so.
Learn More
Prebunking and Debunking: How to handle conspiracy theories in the classroom
from Mr Jones’ Whiteboard The truth is out there – so how do you debunk a myth? by John Cook in The Conversation
Reference List
1. British Journal of Health Psychology, How to debunk misinformation? An experimental online study investigating text structures and headline formats
2. The Decision Lab, Illusory truth effect “when we are repeatedly exposed to misinformation, we are more likely to believe that it’s true”
3. Wikipedia, Truth sandwich
4. Ohio History Connection, Debunking History Myths in the Classroom
The Scout Mindset
The Scout Mindset emphasizes the importance of seeking truth and understanding the world as accurately as possible.
The Scout Mindset
The Scout Mindset emphasizes the importance of seeking truth and understanding the world as accurately as possible. Unlike the “Soldier Mindset,” which is defensive and motivated by a desire to be right, the Scout Mindset is open, curious, and motivated by a desire to see things as they are. This mindset encourages folks to explore different perspectives, question their own beliefs, and update their understanding based on evidence.
Applications
- If you’re working on researching or learning about a topic, reflect on how your thinking has evolved and what new insights you’ve gained as you continue to learn about it.
- Practice perspective-taking by considering multiple perspectives on an issue, practicing empathy, and trying to understand others’ viewpoints. Perspective-taking is a key component of the Scout Mindset.
- Learn to evaluate evidence as a scientist does. This can involve learning statistics, especially understanding the difference between correlation and causation, learning Bayesian reasoning, and taking into account the credibility of sources. Update your understanding when presented with new, credible evidence. Changing one’s mind in light of new information is a strength, not a weakness.
Notes
By practicing the Scout Mindset we can develop a healthier approach to learning and understanding the world around us. Emphasizing the value of truth-seeking over being right can help create cultures where people feel safe to explore and question, an environment of intellectual humility, curiosity, and continuous learning.
Learn More
TED Talk: Why You Think You’re Right – Even If You’re Wrong by Julia Galef
Street Epistemology
Fact-checking is crucial for evaluating the credibility of information encountered in a digital landscape where misinformation & disinformation are rampant.
Street Epistemology
Steelmanning
Steelmanning is the practice of presenting the strongest possible version of someone’s argument; it is the opposite of “strawmanning.”
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Steelmanning
Coming soon. For now, read the PDF version.
Confidence Scales & Real Reasons
These are two key parts of the Street Epistemology approach to dialogue that will vastly improve your interactions on difficult topics.
Confidence Scales & Real Reasons
The ‘What Works’ series is part of the Mental Immunity to Manipulative Information Campaign (MIMIC).
Check out our Lesson Plans page, also part of MIMIC.
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