Countering Disinformation Through Games report

How might video games help build resilience to disinformation particularly among audiences who are disengaged from mainstream media and resistant to traditional media literacy interventions?

This question sits at the heart of Countering Disinformation Through Games, a report by the AKO Storytelling Institute in collaboration with More in Common. The report forms part of the wider project On Their Terms: Developing innovative media literacy interventions for disengaged and low-trust groups

Why games?

Disinformation, amplified by digital platforms, poses a growing threat to social cohesion and democratic life. While conventional media literacy initiatives — such as fact-checking or “spot the fake news” approaches — offer valuable skills, research shows they often fail to engage the audiences most vulnerable to manipulation.

Audience research by More in Common highlights a striking overlap: the groups most disengaged from mainstream media, and most susceptible to disinformation, are also among the most frequent and intensive video game players. This presents an opportunity to explore games not as educational tools, but as immersive environments where new forms of resilience might emerge naturally.

Rethinking media literacy

Rather than focusing on factual accuracy alone, the project explores psychological literacy — supporting people to reflect on how beliefs are formed, how emotions shape judgement, and how social dynamics influence what we accept or reject as true.

The report identifies three core psychological skills relevant to building resilience against disinformation:

• recognising bias in how we judge sources
• identifying emotional manipulation
• understanding social bias and group influence

These skills are often underexplored in traditional media literacy approaches, but lend themselves well to game mechanics, narrative design and player choice.

The Lab and design approach

The findings in this report emerged from a two-day creative Lab bringing together game designers, psychologists, strategic communications specialists and audience experts. Designers were supported with in-depth audience research and psychological insight, and encouraged to explore how these ideas could be embedded subtly and ethically into gameplay.

A key insight was that overtly educational or didactic games about disinformation tend to alienate players. Instead, games that respect player autonomy, prioritise enjoyment, and remain politically neutral are more likely to foster reflection and reach wider audiences.

Key findings and recommendations

The report concludes that video games are uniquely positioned to support media literacy at scale — particularly among audiences least reached by conventional interventions. It recommends:

• embedding psychological literacy directly into game mechanics and narratives
• prioritising subtlety, neutrality and player agency
• supporting independent developers as spaces for experimentation
• accepting the challenges of measuring long-term, diffuse impact

By embracing nuance and collaboration across research, design and culture, games can become powerful tools for building resilience to disinformation where other approaches fall short.

Download the Countering Disinformation Through Games report (PDF 13.29 MB).