Sander van der Linden, Ph.D.
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Professor, Author, and Speaker
US
"[Prebunking] is probably our best strategy for winning the misinformation wars". - The Washington Post
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"A must-read for anyone who cares about misinformation, fake news, and discerning truth".- David Robson, author of The Expectation Effect
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"This is one of those books I could read even if my hair were on fire" - Lee McIyntire, author of Post-Truth and On Disinformation"
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"If you are interested in being inoculated against disinformation, be sure to get this [terrific] book". - Gale Anne Hurd, Executive Producer, The Terminator, The Walking Dead, & The YouTube Effect
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"His work suggests that the brain....can form a sort of habit of seeing the patterns in misinformation and recognising it as it arrives" - David Aaronovitch, The Times
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"Van der Linden has taken a highly creative approach to the problem of fake news and supported it with excellent research." - Skeptical Inquirer
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"Simple but brilliant idea.......if you want to know why people believe fake news... then this is the book to read." - The Skeptic.
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"Van der Linden has captured public imagination in a way few others haves" - Science Magazine
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'Fascinating' - The Observer
'Authoritative' - Financial Times
'Powerful' - Kirkus
'Riveting' - Waterstones
'Encouraging' - The Times
'Important' - Forbes
'Stand-out guide' - Publishers Weekly
'Must-Read' - Psychology Today
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Biography
Educating the Next Generation
Sander van der Linden, Ph.D., is Professor of Social Psychology in Society and Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. His research looks at how people process (mis)information, how it spreads in online networks, and what behavioral interventions we can design to counter it at-scale. He serves on the World Health Organization's (WHO) infodemic management working group and has won numerous awards for his research on human judgment, communication, and decision-making, including the Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science (APS), the Sage Early Career Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), the Frank Prize in Public Interest Research from the University of Florida, and the Sir James Cameron Medal for the Public Understanding of Risk from the Royal College of Physicians. His research papers have received awards from organizations such as the American Psychological Association (APA), the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI). He co-developed the award-winning fake news game, Bad News, which has been played by millions of people around the world and he regularly advises governments and social media companies on how to combat the spread of misinformation. He is ranked among the top 1% of highly cited social scientists worldwide and has published over 150 research papers. He frequently appears on TV and radio internationally and his work is also regularly featured in outlets such as the New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, and the BBC. He has been described by WIRED magazine as one of “15 top thinkers” and by Fast Company Design as one “four heroes who are defending digital democracy online”. Before joining Cambridge, he held academic positions at Princeton, Yale, and the LSE.
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