Matt Gush/Shutterstock.com Paul Dobraszczyk, UCL Carry out a Google image search of the phrase “28 Days Later” and among the many stills and publicity images for the 2002 horror film, one will find a scattering of photographs of London taken during the first COVID-19 lockdown in late March and early April 2020. At that time, some Londoners described the emptiness …

Shutterstock Mark Pearson, Griffith University The blame for the recent assault on the US Capitol and President Donald Trump’s broader dismantling of democratic institutions and norms can be laid at least partly on misinformation and conspiracy theories. Those who spread misinformation, like Trump himself, are exploiting people’s lack of media literacy — it’s easy to spread lies to people who …

Alexander Limbach/Shutterstock Sander van der Linden, University of Cambridge and Jon Roozenbeek, University of Cambridge Anti-vaccination groups are projected to dominate social media in the next decade if left unchallenged. To counter their viral misinformation at a time when COVID-19 vaccines are being rolled out, our research team has produced a “psychological vaccine” that helps people detect and resist the …