The use of an escape room as an immersive learning environment for building resilience to misinformation

Abstract

The rise of misinformation as a prominent societal challenge has given rise to a plethora of educational efforts aimed at equipping individuals with the knowledge and skills needed to successfully navigate this increasingly daunting information environment. Librarians are on the frontlines of this challenge and have called for new approaches that go beyond more conventional information literacy education. One approach gaining attention is games, and several have emerged with promising results, largely due to their immersive nature that allows players to experience the dynamics of misinformation. In particular, game environments can be designed to highlight the psychological and emotional dimensions of misinformation, arguably the most significant shortcoming of more skills-based approaches to discerning misinformation. In this study, we developed a misinformation escape room and conducted a pilot study in five public libraries to study its effectiveness. Initial findings are encouraging. The misinformation escape room program, consisting of the gameplay plus a debrief discussion, appeared to increase awareness of certain misinformation tactics (e.g. deepfakes), generate reflection on the psychological dimensions of misinformation, and shift attitudes in ways that made many players more cautious of misinformation, potentially influencing their future social media behaviors.