Posted on 16 February 2022
Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw, author of A Matter of Fact. Talking Truth in a Post-Truth World and Co-Director of The Workshop outlines how to be effective when countering misinformation.
Telling people they’re stupid and shouting facts at them doesn’t work, she says. What not to do:
- Avoid engaging with or amplifying false information (even to debunk it)
- Avoid leading with facts and science
- Avoid engaging with people's most self-interested motivations
- Avoid assuming your trusted expert is everyone's trusted expert
Instead do this:
- Focus on the positive story of vaccination. Rinse and repeat (it's what hesitant people need)
- Give people a way to look at vaccination through what matters to all of us
- Use facts to help you explain how vaccination benefits us all
- Inoculate people against false information
- Work with trusted people from across our communities