Fake it to make it, media literacy, and persuasive design: Using the functional triad as a tool for investigating persuasive elements in a fake news simulator

Abstract

How can we motivate social media users to critically analyze potential misinformation? Video games may be one way. This project presents research on a social‐impact game, Fake It to Make It, which positions players as for‐profit misinformation disseminators. Drawing upon the BJ Fogg's Functional Triad for Persuasive Computers and paying particular attention to the usability and perceived credibility of Fake It to Make It, this research analyzed the game from a persuasive design lens using player‐participant data. This was accomplished through screen‐captured gameplay as well as interviews and retrospective think‐alouds. Additionally, to determine if the game affects abilities to assess claims on social media, pre‐ and post‐intervention media literacy assessments were utilized. With this data, the researchers provide design recommendations to increase usability, influence procedural knowledge on social media, and promote continued gameplay and greater emotional/behavioral impact.

Educational Approaches to Address Fake News - Preliminary Insights From a Systematic Review

“…A noteworthy approach is gamification (Basol et al, 2020, Roozenbeek and van der Linden, 2019, Katsaounidou et al, 2019, Urban et al, 2018. One example is a digital game that included the use of tools such as search engine search, reverse image research, image verification assistant and fact checkers (Katsaounidou et al, 2019).…”

“…Interestingly, across intervention and control group, there was a linkage between fake news detection skills and knowledge about the workings of news media, although the research design did not permit the closer examination of this relationship. In addition, some digital games touch on the broader dynamics through which disinformation is being shared, albeit to a very limited extent (Urban et al, 2018, Roozenbeek and van der Linden, 2019, Basol et al, 2020. It was, in fact, suggested that a way to improve one game would be to integrate more information about underlying political motives and dynamics (Urban et al, 2018).…”

Gamified Inoculation Interventions Do Not Improve Discrimination Between True and Fake News: Reanalyzing Existing Research With Receiver Operating Characteristic Analysis

“…We then manually searched the reference lists in these five studies and found another potentially eligible paper (Saleh et al, 2021). Finally, we searched Google with the following search query: "fake news game" and found three more potentially eligible studies (Grace & Hone, 2019;Micallef et al, 2021;Urban et al, 2019). However, after examining the titles, abstracts, and results of these four additional papers, we found that they did not meet our inclusion criteria.…”

The (Mis)Information Game: A Social Media Simulator

“…Another strand of research has used gamified tools that have been developed primarily for the purpose of educating users about common misinformation tactics and characteristics. Specifically, games such as Fake It To Make It (Urban et al, 2018), Bad News (Roozenbeek & van der Linden, 2019), Harmony Square , Go Viral! (Basol et al, 2021), and Cranky Uncle (Cook et al, 2022) teach players common techniques for promoting misinformation in the hope that this has an inoculating effect (van der Linden et al, 2020).…”