Matthew Facciani

The Hidden Social Forces Behind Misinformation Cecilie Steenbuch-Traberg joins me to discuss how social context shapes misinformation susceptibility, how to make media literacy games for today's digital age, and the impact of AI on information.

Listen to the full podcast episode here:
matthewfacciani.substack.com/p/the-hidden...

Psychologist @cecilietraberg.bsky.social describes the power of storytelling in science communication and education. If you want people to remember scientific ideas or boost their media literacy, you can’t just present data, you need to make them feel the story behind it.

Can Media Literacy Games Travel Across Cultures? What we learned testing two prebunking games in Indonesia and the United States.

The big takeaway:
Fighting misinformation isn’t one-size-fits-all.
Cultural fit drives engagement, and engagement drives learning.
Full breakdown + paper in my latest Substack post.
matthewfacciani.substack.com/p/can-media-...

In the U.S., both games worked.
But surprisingly, the simple WhatsApp-style game from Indonesia worked just as well as Harmony Square.
Simple, familiar formats traveled better than expected.

In Indonesia, only the culturally tailored game worked.
Players who used Gali Fakta were less likely to share false headlines.
Harmony Square had basically no effect.

The games used prebunking: teaching people to recognize misinformation tactics before they encounter them.
• Gali Fakta: a WhatsApp-style chat game built for Indonesia
• Harmony Square: a game built for American-style political satire where you play the villain

Most misinformation tools are designed for Western audiences.
But what happens when you use them somewhere else?
We tested two media literacy games in the U.S. and Indonesia with ~1,600 participants. The results were surprising. 🧵

Nintendo is suing the US government for a refund of Trump’s illegal tariffs FedEx has sued the Trump administration over the tariffs, too.

"Nintendo of America is suing the US government over President Trump’s tariffs and is demanding a “prompt refund, with interest” of any duties that it has paid"
www.theverge.com/games/890861...

A new survey of 25 countries finds that Americans rate their fellow citizens as the least morally good, with 53% of U.S. adults saying Americans have bad morals and ethics.
www.pewresearch.org?attachment_i...

Trump says Kristi Noem is stepping down as homeland security secretary The president said he would nominate Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin to replace her.

Kristi Noem is no longer Homeland Security Secretary. www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru...

Towards the study of world misinformation | HKS Misinformation Review What if nearly everything we think we know about misinformation came from just a sliver of the world? When research leans heavily on online studies from a few wealthy nations, we risk drawing global c...

This paper argues that misinformation research needs to move beyond studies of a few wealthy countries and online samples to include diverse, real-world information environments worldwide in order to produce more accurate and effective insights. I agree!
misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/towa...

New study finds that a Latin America–adapted version of the prebunking game Bad News significantly reduced the perceived reliability of social media misinformation.
ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

Anthropic cofounder says studying the humanities will be 'more important than ever' and reveals what the AI company looks for when hiring | Fortune "The things that make us human will become much more important instead of much less important."

Anthropic co-founder Daniela Amodei argues that as AI takes over more technical tasks, uniquely human qualities (communication, empathy, critical thinking, and a humanities-based understanding of people) will become more important than ever in the workplace.
fortune.com/2026/02/07/a...

Extended follow-up of invasive cervical cancer risk after quadrivalent HPV vaccination: nationwide, register based study Objectives To evaluate the long term risk of invasive cervical cancer after receiving the quadrivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, how risk varies by time since vaccination, and to assess the ...

A new large-scale study provides strong long-term evidence that HPV vaccination effectively prevents invasive cervical cancer, particularly when administered at younger ages.
www.bmj.com/content/392/...

I’ve been thinking about writing a related post connecting this to research on critical ignoring, as well as the broader structural challenges we’re facing such as education systems and the erosion of third spaces in particular.

I especially appreciate her practical recommendations: adding “good friction” to our lives, engaging in AI governance, and intentionally using AI as a tool to strengthen rather than replace human reasoning.

Something Bigger Than AI is Happening Pay attention and read every single word please.

This is an excellent essay by Shae Omonijo describing how the decline in critical thinking began long before the recent rise of AI, and that AI is accelerating existing trends.
shaeomonijo.substack.com/p/something-...

Health Affairs Journal

“Interruption of scientific research on vaccine hesitancy and promotion is unprecedented and dangerous, but government officials, universities, and private funders can step up to protect it.”
www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...

Claude is now the top app in the iPhone store.

Just one in four Americans supports US strikes on Iran, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds One in four Republicans say Trump is too willing to use military force.

Source:
www.reuters.com/world/us/jus...

Just 27% of Americans approve of Trump's attack on Iran.

People rely on their existing political beliefs to identify election misinformation | HKS Misinformation Review Rather than assuming that people are motivated to fact-check, we investigated the process that people go through when and if they encounter political misinformation. Using a digital diary method, we a...

Another study finds that people judge political misinformation based on their own political beliefs. Since very few people actually fact-check, politicians can make unverified claims because most voters won’t check them or hold them accountable.
misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/peop...

Exploration of the Effectiveness of Logic-Focused Strategies that Debunk Correlation-Causation Fallacy in Combating COVID-19 Vaccine-Cancer Misinformation This study examines the effectiveness of logic-focused messages that debunk correlation-causation fallacies in COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, testing two conditions-one with and one without a mod...

New study finds that logic-based messages that point out faulty reasoning are more effective than fact-based corrections at reducing COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, especially among people who distrust the CDC.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Claude was already gaining ground due to its performance, but Anthropic standing up to protect their safeguards has clearly resonated with a wide audience.

Claude is now the top productivity app, taking over ChatGPT.

Robert F Kennedy Jr: 1 year of failure In his first speech as Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Robert F Kennedy Jr laid out a plan to restore trust. The COVID-19 pandemic saw public faith in Federal health...

“Kennedy’s record, 1 year in, has been a failure by most measures, especially his own”
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Today I’ll be speaking at #SPSP2026! I’ll be on the panel covering misinformation and discussing my research on cross cultural media literacy tools.

The Hidden Social Forces Behind Misinformation

It was such a pleasure to be on the Misguided podcast talking about the hidden social forces of misinformation with @matthewfacciani.bsky.social !

open.spotify.com/episode/42rz...

Opinion | I Grew Up Unvaccinated. Now I’m an Immunologist.

This is such a powerful and important piece by @sciencewhizliz.bsky.social about growing up unvaccinated, becoming an immunologist, and deeply understanding how to talk to people about vaccines.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/o...

Anthropic says Pentagon's "final offer" is unacceptable The company is facing a Friday night deadline to comply or face potentially huge consequences.

“The contract language we received overnight from the Department of War made virtually no progress on preventing Claude's use for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons”
www.axios.com/2026/02/26/a...