Psychologists fight Russian disinformation

For years, the Kremlin has churned out propaganda about Ukrainians, depicting them as neo-Nazis conspiring with Western powers to take Russia down. Little data exists on public opinion in Russia today, but there’s plenty of evidence that fear and manipulationopens in new window still control much of how information flows in the country.

“In closed societies like Russia, it’s extremely difficult to know what people think,” said Stephan Lewandowsky, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Bristol.

Psychologists are part of several efforts to find out—and to help Russians access factual information about the war in Ukraine. They’re using research findings to shape outreach efforts and guide conversations with Russian citizens.

[Related: The role of psychological warfare in the battle for Ukraine]

The Mail2RU initiativeopens in new window, for example, has sent more than 60 million emails to Russians with credible information about the war. But social psychologist Julia Minson, PhD, an associate professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, noticed that the campaign’s initial messages, composed by the Norwegian technology expert who launched the effort, weren’t strategically worded to reach people with a different point of view.

Minson quickly joined forcesopens in new window with the Mail2RU team and is now applying her research on “conversational receptiveness” to improve the content of the messages. The adjustments are meant to reduce pushback and open up productive dialogue with the Russian email recipients (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processesopens in new window, Vol. 160, 2020).

For example, her research shows the power of hedging claims in the face of anticipated resistance. Instead of saying “Putin is lying to the Russian people,” she suggested saying: “Sometimes, the Russian government has been known to lie to the Russian people. What do you think is going on? I’d like to hear your perspective.”

In line with her findings, the rewritten emails now emphasize points of agreement (“I’m sure that both of us are concerned for the safety of our planet”) and acknowledge what the recipients might be going through (“I understand that things are hard right now in Russia under the sanctions”). They’re also much shorter and easier to skim, drawing on research by organizational psychologist Todd Rogers, PhD, also of the Harvard Kennedy School, on what he calls “corresponding with busy peopleopens in new window.”

A similar initiative, Call Russiaopens in new window, uses phone calls instead of emails to open up information channels. Cofounder Paulius Senuta, who works in advertising, worked with a team of four Lithuanian psychologists to build scripts that emphasize emotions and personal connections rather than merely correcting facts.

“We can’t change minds by arguing who’s right or wrong,” Senuta said. “The way we’re trying to make a difference is by asking questions and provoking basic human sympathy for the people who are dying.”

At the University of Cambridge, psychologists Jon Roozenbeek, PhD, and Sander van der Linden, PhD, are working with the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office to translate tools they’ve developedopens in new window to inoculate individuals against online disinformation into Russian and Ukrainian.

“The individual examples are different, but the underlying tropes are the same,” Roozenbeek said. “We’re exploring how these tools can be used to counteract strategies commonly used in Russian disinformation.”