Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity

Professor Sander van der Linden of Cambridge — who leads the Social Decision-Making Lab and advises the WHO's infodemic alliance and the UK National Security Risk Assessment — has built a career on a single counterintuitive proposition: that misinformation can be countered before it takes hold, using the same logic as vaccination. Foolproof is the public-facing synthesis of that research programme. The book argues that exposing people to weakened doses of manipulative techniques — a process van der Linden calls prebunking — generates cognitive antibodies that make them significantly more resistant to subsequent disinformation.

The practical implications are substantial. Where most counter-disinformation approaches focus on debunking — correcting false claims after they have spread — van der Linden's inoculation approach is proactive and scalable. His research, conducted with Google and deployed across millions of users, shows measurable effects. Winner of the SPSP Book Prize and described by Lee McIntyre as "one of those books I could read even if my hair were on fire," Foolproof is essential reading for anyone designing resilience programmes, media literacy interventions, or institutional responses to information threats. It is the most evidence-based guide to counter-disinformation practice currently available.