
Sebastian Salomon-Ballada
Principal Advisor, International Programs
There are certain contextual factors that may make us more susceptible to disinformation. Generally, it depends on one’s level of knowledge about the topic and their attitude toward it. The less someone knows and the more skeptical they are, the more likely they will be to spread fake news on a given subject.
In a 2022 study, we successfully reduced susceptibility to fake news. Using videos informed by behavioural science, we reduced people’s intent to share disinformation about sexual and reproductive health education (SRHE), increased their knowledge, and shifted their perceptions on the topic.
SRHE aims to promote equality between genders, prevent discrimination, and reduce the transmission of STDs and unwanted teenage pregnancies. SRHE has been shown to improve young people’s well-being long term and, in Peru, the majority of parents believe it should be provided in school. However, disinformation campaigns about SRHE have been increasingly shared on social media. They use a rhetoric of fear and moral panic to deceive Peruvians into thinking that it’s harmful. Common myths falsely claim that SRHE promotes homosexuality or promiscuity, undermines parental authority, and destroys the nuclear heterosexual family.
With our project partners—Wayka, Dr Melisa Basol, and the Old Dart Foundation—we developed and tested the impact of four 1-1.5 minute long videos designed to debunk myths about SRHE through a randomized controlled trial. Three of them featured intervention messages and one was a control video for comparison.
We recruited a sample of 4,007 Peruvian parents and teachers from across political viewpoints using Facebook and randomly assigned them to view one of the four videos. Then we showed them four fake news stimuli (in the format of WhatsApp messages) and asked them to report their likelihood of sharing the message with a contact or a group. We also asked questions measuring their knowledge and perceptions of SRHE.
In addition to featuring educators as trusted messengers, we used the “sandwich method” to structure the intervention videos:
This structure draws from the growing body of evidence on how behavioral science can address fake news. For example, it helps people spot disinformation by providing a quick, memorable explanation of a myth that they might be targeted with.
Given the success of the videos, our partner, Wakya, a nonprofit community newspaper, scaled them across their social media platforms to combat disinformation.
Our research is a critical development in the fight against disinformation about SRHE. We think our findings hold promise for other topics plagued by fake news, such as climate change, democracy, and civic participation, among others. Nonprofits, NGOs, and other organizations could use and test this video structure to actively try to refute disinformation in their fields.
We are happy to help—if you’d like to discuss how behavioral insights can help spread the truth on your topic and make a positive social impact, get in touch with us here.
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We are grateful for the contributions of the Wayka team – Gabriela Modesto, Graciela Tiburcio, Nicol Leon, Luciana Távara, and Rael Mora – in developing and implementing study materials.
Principal Advisor, International Programs
Interim Principal Advisor, Canada
Content Writer
Director, International Programmes
BIT Intern
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