Toolbox of Interventions Against Online Misinformation and Manipulation

The spread of misinformation through media and social networks threatens many aspects of society, including public health and the state of democracies. A wide range of individual-focused interventions aimed at reducing harm from online misinformation have been developed in the behavioral and cognitive sciences. We, an international group of 26 experts, introduce and analyze our toolbox of interventions against misinformation, which includes an up-to-date account of the interventions featured in 42 scientific papers. A resource for scientists, policy makers, and the public, the toolbox delivers both a conceptual overview of the breadth of interventions, including their target and scope, and a summary of the empirical evidence supporting the interventions, including the methods and experimental paradigms used to test them. The toolbox covers 10 types of interventions: accuracy prompts, debunking, friction, inoculation, lateral reading, media-literacy tips, rebuttals of science denialism, self-reflection tools, social norms, and warning and fact-checking labels.