During the 2016 British referendum on whether to secede from or stay in the EU, a digital firm called Aggregate IQ was hired to generate content pieces for Facebook users in order to create an identity-based call to action to “vote leave.”

Brexit Campaign

Disinformation campaigns can alter patterns such as voting behavior of individuals, as these campaigns activate culturally-fluent identity based reasoning. This new identity that is formed can carry over to future judgements because once the identity is "activated", any associated actions and values will also be activated. 

Long-Term Effects of Disinformation

- Election Campaigns 
- COVID-19 and Vaccine Campaigns 
- Religious Campaigns 
- LGBTQIA+ Campaigns 


Types of Fake News Campaigns in Indonesia Minorities 

Campaigns that paint a certain course of action as being specific to one’s identity. These campaigns emphasize that not taking that certain action threatens one’s identity itself.

Johns Hopkins University

Disinformation is information that is (verifiably) false or misleading that is purposefully spread to misinform the public. 

Disinformation 

Oyserman, D., & Dawson, A. (2020). Your fake news, our facts: Identity-based motivation shapes what we believe, share, and accept. In R. Greifeneder, M. Jaffé, E. J. New- man, & N. Schwarz (Eds.), The psychology of fake news: Accepting, sharing, and correcting misinformation (pp. 173–195). London: Routledge. 

Your fake news, our facts: Identity-based motivation shapes what we believe, share, and accept

Inoculating someone (in the context of fake news) is an attempt to reduce an individual's susceptibility to accepting fake news by presenting them with misinformation and giving them the tools to recognize it as such. The theory comes directly from an immunological analogy about virus protection; in the psychological sense, inoculation is giving someone a "weakened" version of misleading info, which leads "mental antibodies" formed, making them "immune" to persuasion.

See "How Disinformation is Disseminated"

Inoculation Theory

- Impersonation: Posing as a real person/organization or claiming to be a reputable organization without any credentials. 
- Emotional Content
- Polarization: Using tactics like false amplification to push people to either side of the spectrum.
- Conspiracy
- Discrediting opponents
- Trolling: The act of attempting to elicit a response by baiting.
- Doubtful consensus messaging


Disinformation Strategies

1. creating the appearance of a culturally relevant “legitimate” question 
2. framing the issue as an identity-based rather than an information-based concern
3. presenting a clear identity-based choice, and framing alternative choices as identity threatening.

Steps Taken for a "Deformer" to  Effectively Provide Disinformation 

According to Guess & Lyons (2020) misinformation and disinformation differ regarding the author's/creater's intent. Misinformation and Disinformation are often difficult to distinguish because it’s difficult to tell whether someone spread wrong information intentionally (Disinformation) or unintentionally (Misinformation). If political misinformation is spread by politicians it's usually considered as disinformation. Also, fake news which are organized and spread by established news organizations are considered disinformation.

Distinction between Misinformation and Disinformation

- Psychological Stress
- Economic Damage
- Sexual Violence 
- Physical Harm 

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