How to fight misinformation online

Plus, research on concussions in women lags behind

View this email online October 30, 2022 by Andrea Muraskin This week: With midterms around the corner, misleading and false information is flowing like Halloween candy. This year, social media companies, governments, and nonprofits are dispensing some preventive medicine. Plus, researchers make a case for more concussion research on women and girls. And we figure out why getting a medication via injection can be shockingly expensive.  ‘Pre-bunking’ helps stem the spread of misinformation Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images Steven Youngblood, a professor of journalism at The Parkville University in Missouri, has a rule of thumb for spotting misinformation online. He says if you read a headline or see a post and it makes you instantly angry, that's a clue it may be misleading or false. Steve’s sharing that tip is a form of “pre-bunking”-- like debunking, but in advance. It’s a technique that government agencies and tech companies are increasingly turning to in this age of misinformation. The idea is to show people the tactics and tropes of misleading information before they encounter it in the wild — so they're better equipped to recognize and resist it. Sort of like a vaccination for your mind.  Psychologists have created games like Bad News, where players post conspiracy theories and false claims, with the goal of gaining followers and credibility. Within the game, Bad News encourages you to create accounts impersonating powerful people, and appeal to emotions like fear and anger. For example, if you want to spread the idea that climate change is a hoax, you can create a post entitled “Expecting Mother Told: Not Having Kids Is Better For The Climate.”  (In all caps in the game, of course …I’d never scream at you, dear reader.) Researchers at the University of Cambridge found that after people played Bad News, they were less likely to think tweets using those same techniques were reliable. Real-world research supports the effectiveness of pre-bunking as well. And efforts are ramping up in advance of the midterm elections. Want to help? Forward this email to a friend or a relative. I’ll wait.  Plus: These tweens created a fake school scandal to prove a point about social media, and they made a podcast about it   Newsletter continues after sponsor message This man was prescribed injections to treat prostate cancer. The price: $73,812 Taylor Glascock/Taylor Glascock When Paul Hinds found out he had advanced prostate cancer, hormone-blocking medication wasn’t his first option, nor his second or third. Two years after he was diagnosed, and after having his prostate removed, his doctors determined that the cancer metastasized. At this point, the only way to stop the cancer from spreading further was to drastically lower Hinds’ testosterone. So his doctor prescribed a drug called Lupron Depot, which signals the body to stop producing testosterone. It’s administered by injection, and it has to be given in a medical setting. Each shot is effective for three months, and Hinds got two of them. When the bills arrived, Hinds was shocked. The high costs were a result of a combination of factors, including a patent extension on the drug, and administrative fees incurred during the appointments where the shot was administered. And as it turned out, there was a much cheaper option.  Are you scratching your head over a weird medical bill? Want KHN and NPR to look into it? Tell us about it, and you could be featured on Bill of the Month! Concussion protocols are based on research of mostly men. What about women? Charles Krupa/AP Millions of Americans get concussions each year, and many of them are female. Neurologists know that women report more symptoms than men after a head impact, like dizziness, light sensitivity, and memory issues – but they don’t know why.  Schools, teams and medical professionals rely on three important organizations – including the International Conference on Concussion in Sport – to help guide concussion diagnosis and protocols. In a new analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers looked at the studies that the three organizations use to back up their guidance. The participants in these studies, they found, were only 19.9% female.  Julianne Schmidt, a concussion researcher at the University of Georgia and one of the study's authors, says we need to know more about how concussions affect women and girls differently. "The doctor that's treating an NFL player on the sideline is using the same statements and guidelines that a pediatrician is using to treat a 14-year-old soccer player who's female," Schmidt said. "We can't just assume that women are miniature males." Plus: The NFL just changed its concussion policy, again. Here’s what’s new.   Before you go: Kay Hinton/Emory University Listen: the science behind the thrill of being scared Omicron keeps evolving, and outsmarting our defenses Expanding Medicaid is a key issue in some states’ midterms–  and it’s popular As a CPAP recall drags on, sleep apnea sufferers are getting angry We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us on Twitter at @NPRHealth. All the best,  Andrea Muraskin and your Shots editors Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: shots@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? 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