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Pre-bunking Misinformation: A 90-Day Enterprise Playbook

Why This Matters Now: Misinformation as an HR, Risk, and Brand Issue

Recent MIT Technology Review research with Cambridge psychologist Sander van der Linden shows that “pre-bunking”—briefly exposing people to manipulation techniques before false narratives take hold—can reduce susceptibility by up to 25%. For business leaders, misinformation isn’t just a PR headache: it fuels HR incidents, fractures team trust on platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams, and threatens customer loyalty on channels from LinkedIn to WhatsApp and Reddit. Firms that embed pre-bunking gain a measurable trust advantage with employees, customers, and regulators.

Executive Summary: Strategic Business Impacts

• Risk Containment: Pre-bunking cuts the spread of harmful narratives by 30% compared to after-the-fact debunking (Google Jigsaw/Bad Vaxx study).
• Culture Defense: Empathetic validation and peer-led recovery reduce isolation, preventing radicalization that undermines teamwork.
• Trust Premium: Teaching staff to detect emotional storytelling, scapegoating, and false dichotomies signals accountability to investors and regulators.

Market Context: The Trust Battleground Moves Inside

Generative AI, influencer ecosystems, and polarized media accelerate conspiratorial content. Van der Linden notes, “People resist debunking but respond well to inoculation games under two minutes.” Google Jigsaw’s Bad Vaxx videos improved users’ misinformation detection by 28% in trials. As government frameworks on online harms tighten, proactive media literacy in the enterprise is as essential as cyber-awareness.

Case Study: Pre-bunking in Action at MedTech Co.

MedTech Co., a global medical device supplier, faced growing rumors on its internal Slack channels that a new product had been linked to safety incidents. HR recorded a 15% rise in stress leaves. Within 30 days of launching a 10-minute pre-bunking module on manipulation tactics, detection accuracy rose from a 42% baseline to 67%, rumor spread stalled at one channel, and stress-leave requests dropped by 8% in Q4.

Operationalizing Pre-bunking: A 90-Day Plan

1. Day 1-15: Assign Ownership & Baseline
   • Roles: Chief Communications Officer & Chief People Officer co-sponsors; IT, Security, Legal partners.
   • Deliverables: Baseline survey (see template below), initial risk map for Slack, MS Teams, Yammer.
   • Success Metrics: 500 survey responses; detect-misinfo confidence score average; departmental rumor-frequency index.
2. Day 16-45: Deploy Core Modules
   • Deliverable: A 10-minute microlearning module on top five manipulation techniques, hosted on LinkedIn Learning or internal LMS.
   • Format: Video + interactive “inoculation game” (similar to Bad Vaxx) with immediate feedback.
   • Training Cadence: All employees complete within two weeks; managers live “lunch-and-learn” sessions on Microsoft Teams.
   • KPIs: 25% lift in post-module quiz scores; 80% module completion rate; average time-to-completion.
3. Day 46-75: Equip Managers & Ambassadors
   • Deliverable: One-page “Validate-First” conversation script, referral pathway to EAP/HR, monthly peer-forum on WhatsApp or Slack.
   • Roles: HR Business Partners train managers in empathetic validation through role-play sessions.
   • KPIs: Manager confidence score; number of early interventions logged; reduction in rumor threads.
4. Day 76-90: Monitor, Iterate, and Scale
   • Deliverables: Quarterly pulse survey, A/B testing of message frames on internal Yammer posts, published “Trust Dashboard” update.
   • Guardrails: Use keyword-based sentiment analysis on public channels; no direct message or email content scanning to protect privacy. Prohibit employee surveillance.
   • KPIs: 15% quarter-over-quarter improvement in sentiment positivity; 20% faster time-to-intervention; reduction in misinfo incidents by department.

Baseline Survey Template (Example)

Privacy & Ethical Monitoring Guardrails

• Monitor only public channels; aggregate at team or channel level.
• Focus on keyword frequency and sentiment trends, not individual user content.
• Disclose monitoring policy in employee handbook; obtain consent where required by law.

Next Steps & Call to Action

Don’t wait for the next brand crisis. Start your 90-day pre-bunking program now:

• Schedule a cross-functional kickoff with Communications, HR, Security, and Legal.
• Deploy the baseline survey within two weeks.
• Book a demo of our pre-bunking microlearning modules on LinkedIn Learning.

Contact us at info@codolie.com to reserve your pilot and claim early-adopter pricing. Unlock measurable trust, reduce HR risks, and safeguard your brand reputation through strategic pre-bunking.

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