Digital Literacy

Misinformation is when false information is shared without harmful intention, while disinformation is spreading false information with the intention to spread misleading facts and manipulate common understandings. Both are harmful, and both can be combated with prebunking. While debunking is the (still important) reactive process of correcting information after it has spread, prebunking is proactively sharing accurate information before false claims are spread. This can lead to people dismissing false claims because they have already been warned about them. Prebunking can act as psychological inoculation, preventing us from defaulting to a cognitive bias (like confirmation bias) in the face of the unknown.