Sander van der Linden
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profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden
@profsanderlinden.bsky.social
33K followers 990 following 320 posts

Professor of Social Psychology in Society at the University of Cambridge and Author of FOOLPROOF: Why We Fall for Misinformation and How to Build Immunity (2023) + The Psychology of Misinformation (2024). Bad News Game.

www.sandervanderlinden.com .. more

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Sander L. van der Linden is a Dutch social psychologist and author who is Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Cambridge. He studies the psychology of social influence, risk, human judgment, and decision-making. He is known for his research on the psychology of social issues, such as fake news, COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and climate change denial. .. more

Sociology 26%
Political science 26%
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profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · Apr 8
Who is susceptible to misinformation? We looked at >60,000 people from 24 countries who took our MIST test. Key results: Gen Z are more susceptible & those on the extreme right (but they don't know it).

Led by the brill @yarakyrychenko.bsky.social & Fritz Götz

authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Reposted by Sander van der Linden, John R. Hutchinson, Smith

walkerbragman.bsky.social
Walker Bragman @walkerbragman.bsky.social · 10d
Sad day for the folks who staked their reputations on lab leak conspiracy theories.

www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...
The Telegraph Headline: New Covid virus found in wild Brazilian bats Subhed: The discovery of a ‘furin cleavage site’ suggests the mutation which helps the virus adapt to humans is naturally occurring

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 10d
Here's my top 5 ways to help friends & family falling down the conspiracy hole:

1. Prebunk - prevention is key

2. Validate their worldview first

3. Reiterate social consensus to highlight extremism

4. Involve ex-conspiracy theorists

5. Keep in touch & prevent isolation

shorturl.at/dmldd
How to help friends and family dig out of a conspiracy theory black hole
Some tried and trusted techniques that might help.
www.technologyreview.com

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 11d
Yes

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 11d
The standardized Misinformation Susceptibility Test (MIST) link.springer.com/article/10.3...
The Misinformation Susceptibility Test (MIST): A psychometrically validated measure of news veracity discernment - Behavior Research Methods
Interest in the psychology of misinformation has exploded in recent years. Despite ample research, to date there is no validated framework to measure misinformation susceptibility. Therefore, we intro...
link.springer.com

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 11d
It is! But it doesn't seem to protect against misinfo effects, which is somewhat surprising.

Reposted by Diane Coyle

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 11d
I hear a lot about misinformation as a "symptom" of "distrust". Here we test this & find that while trust is important, it doesn't buffer: misinfo isn't mitigated by high trust. Both misinfo & distrust *independently* predict vaccine denial. It's a disease of its own!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

caulfieldtim.bsky.social
Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 12d
We "Inoculate" the Brain Against #Misinformation www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/soci... by @profsanderlinden.bsky.social

"...helps people better discern reliable from unreliable news without causing cynicism about media."

Needed: "ability to spot & discuss attempts to manipulate public opinion"
Can We "Inoculate" the Brain Against Misinformation?
Can we trust anything in the age of AI? A new study finds that "psychological inoculation" helps people better discern fact from fiction without causing undue distrust of media.
www.psychologytoday.com

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 13d
But cognitive antibody generation can be measured both physiologically and with fMRI in a way that maps onto behavioral constructs so it's pretty concrete to me.

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 13d
For sure - we created some fun games that might lure people in by taking on the role of a grifter, e.g. Bad Vaxx www.badvaxx.com
Bad Vaxx
A wild game about a serious subject
www.badvaxx.com

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 13d
We tackle that philosophical question here psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...
APA PsycNet
psycnet.apa.org

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 13d
Can we inoculate the brain against misinformation?

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/soci...
Can We "Inoculate" the Brain Against Misinformation?
Can we trust anything in the age of AI? A new study finds that "psychological inoculation" helps people better discern fact from fiction without causing undue distrust of media.
www.psychologytoday.com

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 13d
FYI might be of interest @katestarbird.bsky.social @ninajankowicz.com @noupside.bsky.social @gordpennycook.bsky.social @lkfazio.bsky.social @dgrand.bsky.social @brendannyhan.bsky.social @tspampatti.bsky.social @jayvanbavel.bsky.social @matthewfacciani.bsky.social @commscholar.bsky.social

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 13d
We hope the field will take forward this more flexible approach to evaluate misinformation interventions using Signal Detection Theory. This was a long time coming & made possible because of the brilliant collabs & computational work from @almogsi.bsky.social & team + @lewan.bsky.social

END
5/5

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 13d
Bottom line: policy-makers, educators, and practitioners can readily scale inoculation interventions without worrying about whether they might make people too vigilant (if there was such a concern in the current political environment!).

✔️We can help people distinguish signal from noise. 4/5

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 13d
Unlike prior work, we advance a Bayesian ordinal multi-level model that directly estimates discrimination ability & response bias, respecting the ordinal-level nature of reliability ratings, accounting for item-level & participant-level random effects + explicitly modelling latent variance. 3/5

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 13d
Can people learn to detect signal amidst all the noise?

✅Using Signal Detection Theory (SDT), we find that prebunking/inoculation interventions consistently improve people's ability to discern between reliable and unreliable news without making people unduly skeptical or credulous!

2/5

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Stephan Lewandowsky, Greg Linden

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 13d
New Bayesian *Meta-Analysis* of Psychological Inoculation Against Misinformation! Open-access 👇Thread! Buckle up

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

✅We find that prebunking interventions improve people's ability to discern between reliable & unreliable news without causing undue skepticism!

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

leverhulme.ac.uk
Leverhulme Trust @leverhulme.ac.uk · 14d
"The more misinformation is repeated the more likely people are to believe it."

In the latest episode of The We Society podcast, Will Hutton is joined by @profsanderlinden.bsky.social to discuss how we can inoculate ourselves against misinformation.
🎙️ media.leverhulme.ac.uk/podcast/sand...

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 17d
Submit your work to the 2026 Cambridge Disinformation Summit! We're going strong, back next year and look forward to receiving top submissions from across the world on systemic risks from technology that impact disinformation. 👇

www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/events/cambr...

@jagolinzer.bsky.social

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

jagolinzer.bsky.social
Alan Jagolinzer @jagolinzer.bsky.social · 18d
Three weeks remaining: Call for Papers for the Cambridge Disinformation Summit, 8-10 April 2026, at the University of Cambridge.

Research on systemic risks from technology that affects information streams or the amplification or monetization of disinformation.

www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/events/cambr...
Cambridge disinformation summit (2026) - Cambridge Judge Business School
Connect with Cambridge Judge! Explore our full calendar of upcoming events, learn about our programmes and connect with world-class speakers.
www.jbs.cam.ac.uk

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 18d
Thanks to @mitchprinstein.bsky.social at APA!

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

publichealthguy1.bsky.social
public health guy 🦃 @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 18d
there's a lot of misinfo out there about what works to counter misinfo (womp womp). this is a great resource and a must-read for public health: awspntest.apa.org/fulltext/202...
pages 9-10 containing the recs. too much text for alt text. pdf link in the post.

Reposted by Diane Coyle, Lisa W. Fazio, Stephan Lewandowsky , and 4 more

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 18d
Public health is under attack by a deluge of misinformation. We offer a consensus report from the American Psychological Association summarizing what we know & what interventions are effective in countering it. We provide 8 concrete recommendations. Open-access - awspntest.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Reposted by Sander van der Linden, Sarah J. Schoppe‐Sullivan

leverhulme.ac.uk
Leverhulme Trust @leverhulme.ac.uk · 19d
Can we inoculate ourselves against misinformation?
In episode 4 of The We Society podcast, @profsanderlinden.bsky.social joins Will Hutton to discuss how people can become influenced by misinformation and how we can gain resistance to false persuasion.
🎙️ media.leverhulme.ac.uk/podcast/sand...

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

acadsocsciences.bsky.social
Academy of Social Sciences @acadsocsciences.bsky.social · 19d
Can we inoculate ourselves against misinformation? In this episode of the We Society @profsanderlinden.bsky.social joins Will Hutton to discuss how people can become influenced by misinformation & his research into how we can gain resistance to false persuasion. podfollow.com/the-we-socie...

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 19d
It was a pleasure to talk to Will Hutton about misinformation and inoculation on the We Society Podcast for the Academy of Social Sciences (@acadsocsciences.bsky.social)

Full episode here podfollow.com/the-we-socie...

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 20d
It's been 2 years since Foolproof, unfortunately misinformation is a bigger issue than ever, but excited to see all the international versions come out now. Here's the South Korean cover, one of the coolest I've seen!

Simplified Chinese and Turkish editions next!

Reposted by David M. Schultz, Sander van der Linden, Mike S. Schäfer , and 7 more

nielsmede.bsky.social
Niels G. Mede @nielsmede.bsky.social · 20d
Published today: One of the biggest #science #communication studies to date. We asked 71,922 people in 68 countries how they #engage with information about #science and combined the data with several country-level factors: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #OpenAccess

profsanderlinden.bsky.social
Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social · 24d
Just arrived in Portugal for the Society for Experimental Social Psychology Conference (SESP). 27 degrees out here and a rooftop pool, that’s my kind of conference!

Reposted by Sander van der Linden

iasliu.bsky.social
The Institute for Analytical Sociology @iasliu.bsky.social · Oct 6
Join us on Thursday, 9 October, at 14:30 CET for the Analytical Sociology Seminar with Sander van der Linden @profsanderlinden.bsky.social 🔹 Psychological Inoculation Against Misinformation🔹 More info: liu.se/en/event/ana...
Analytical Sociology Seminar: Sander van der Linden
Welcome to the Analytical Social Seminar with Sander van der Linden from University of Cambridge. Psychological inoculation against misinformation. The seminar is open for the public. Language: Englis...
liu.se