Resisting Disinformation

6. Civic Knowledge and Skills

This introductory article was written by ChatGPT at the direction of Heidi Burgess, who reviewed, edited, and approved the final content.
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Disinformation is false or misleading information that is created or spread deliberately in order to deceive, manipulate, or harm. This makes it different from ordinary error. People can misunderstand an issue, repeat a rumor, or share a mistaken claim without intending to mislead anyone.(This is often called "misinformation.") Disinformation is different and more dangerous because it is strategic. It is often designed to get people to vote against their interests, distrust reliable institutions, hate their opponents, reject public-health guidance, excuse corruption, or give up on democracy itself. The Center for Internet Security defines disinformation as false information deliberately created to mislead, harm, or manipulate a person, group, organization, or country.

Resisting disinformation begins with recognizing that the problem is not simply a shortage of facts. Facts matter enormously, but disinformation often works by exploiting identity, fear, resentment, repetition, and distrust. A false story may feel true because it confirms what people already suspect about their opponents. A deceptive claim may spread because it gives people a simple explanation for a confusing event. The RAND Corporation’s work on “Truth Decay” warns that public life is damaged when facts and analysis lose influence, disagreement over facts increases, and trust in institutions declines. Disinformation feeds that decay and then benefits from it.

Effective responses therefore need to combine correction with prevention. When a false claim is causing harm, public officials, journalists, experts, and civic leaders should correct it quickly, clearly, and with evidence. But they should avoid repeating the falsehood in ways that give it more visibility. A useful pattern is to begin with the truth, explain the misleading claim only as much as necessary, and then return to the truth. (This is sometimes called a "truth sandwich.")

Organizations should also prepare before crises occur by identifying trusted messengers, creating rapid-response protocols, and building relationships with communities that are likely to be targeted. The National Academies’ work on misinformation interventions emphasizes that different kinds of false claims require different responses, and that interventions must be tested for both effectiveness and unintended consequences.

Prevention also requires “prebunking,” or helping people recognize manipulation techniques before they encounter a specific false claim. This approach warns people about common tactics such as fake expertise, scapegoating, false dilemmas, fabricated evidence, and emotionally manipulative framing. Research summarized in JAMA describes prebunking as a form of psychological inoculation that can make people more resistant to misinformation. Schools, libraries, news organizations, public agencies, and civic groups can all teach these skills. UNESCO’s media and information literacy work makes a similar point: people need the ability to evaluate sources, understand how information systems work, and participate responsibly in the digital public sphere.

For constructive conflict and strong democracy, resisting disinformation is essential because deliberate falsehoods make honest disagreement almost impossible. People cannot bargain, deliberate, vote, or hold leaders accountable if they are being deceived about basic facts. At the same time, efforts to counter disinformation must respect free speech and avoid giving authorities open-ended power to suppress legitimate dissent. The best defense is not a ministry of truth. It is a resilient information ecosystem: independent journalism, transparent institutions, accountable platforms, civic education, trustworthy experts, and citizens who pause before sharing claims designed to provoke instant outrage. Disinformation seeks to make people easier to manipulate. Democratic resilience requires making citizens harder to fool.

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This page was created by ChatGPT in response to this prompt. It was then reviewed, edited, supplemented and approved by Heidi Burgess. More information about how and why we are using AI in this way, and about the growing number of ways in which Beyond Intractability is using ChatGPT, Claude and other AI systems to generate content and build out the BI system, is available on our BI/AI Overview Page.