We cannot throw up our hands in shock and surprise at the amount of misinformation being bandied about on the internet. We live in the age of information, which doesn’t mean that the narratives have to be true. In fact, if you spend any time on social media, you might despair at the sheer amount of false and misleading information that’s circulating around, probably with the sole intention of deceiving the reader. With social media encouraging information tribalism, then everyone is pulled towards their own echo chamber. Fifty years ago if you said that the world is flat, then everyone would laugh at you. Today the same sentiment will gain you thousands of likes and thumbs ups. 

In January of 2021, researchers from the University of Washington’s TASCHA, Center for an Informed Public, decided to sit down and discuss the problem of being overwhelmed by misinformation. This involved both the teaching faculty, the students and outside partners. These meetings eventually led to the formation of a Misinformation Escape Room game. 

Information Literacy And Misinformation

The cure for misinformation is said to be information literacy. Essentially, this is the process whereby you search, evaluate and use the information you need. The problem with this approach is that it allows several assumptions about the nature of the information we find. For example, whether the individual is seeking out information for themselves and whether they are acting alone in their search. But the biggest assumption is that we take it for granted that an individual can actually process the information in a logical and rational manner.  

A quick glance through Youtube comments or the comments under Facebook posts should tell you clearly that people are not able to view information with any sort of rational eye. In some ways, the horse is in front of the cart, so rather than the individual seeking out information, it’s misinformation that seeks them out instead. A huge part of the problem here is down to how the algorithm of these social media platforms prioritise an individual's existing beliefs over new information, thus creating a closed feedback loop. If your goal is to spread misinformation, then these platforms are set up in such a way that they are going to become your go-to tool set. Aso keep in mind that for misinformation to really have an effect, it’ll need both time and repetition in order to strengthen its cause. Conspiracy theories don’t just spring up overnight. It’s a gradual process and tends to work thanks to the inclusion of emotional factors, such as fear, envy, anger, doubt and confusion.

The Misinformation Escape Room

As you probably already know, escape room games involve teams working together in order to “escape” from a room, based on completing puzzles, answering cues etc, and all whilst working against a time limit. The idea behind a misinformation escape room is to allow the participants the opportunity to learn and gain a better understanding about misinformation and propaganda, by using both the emotional and psychological aspects of misinformation.

Though one could set up such an exercise in a real rick and mortar escape room, thanks to living in the age of social distancing, we can run this type of game virtually. By plugging a team of players into the game with a conferencing app like Zoom, all can take part in a fully immersive experience via their own laptops whilst seated on the sofa at home. The game will allow it’s players the possibility to escape based on the results of discovering the differences between real facts and misinformation. Rather than cracking the codes for door locks, these players will have to go even further, and discover the truth.

The University hopes that the game will have a broad appeal across ethic and social backgrounds. Players will experience and learn about confirmation bias and the consequences of the spread of misinformation. Having different teams working together, each coming to the game with their own preconceived idea, will replicate the social media environment we experience on a daily basis. 

Some may well argue that escape room games are not the medium for teaching about information. But we would have to disagree. It’s the very nature of gamification that makes escape room games the perfect tool for teaching. Because the games are totally immersive, memorable and interactive, it means they will have a lasting effect on those who have played. Due to the social nature of the experience, it allows players to openly discuss issues around misinformation in a safe environment. More than anything, it will allow the participants to learn, to discover new ways of looking at social problems and especially information. And everyone can have a blast while doing so.

Having said that, though we applaud the idea behind the misinformation escape room, we can’t see any member of the public ever wanting to pay and play it. This is because most people are happy in their own echo chamber of bias, and certainly don’t want to either hear or know that they are misinformed. But for children, this would be a great educational tool, in that it will help teach them that all important, but forgotten skill, of critical thinking.