Posted on 29 November 2024 by BaerbelW

In November 2011, we published the first version of The Debunking Handbook. As the update notice on that page already shows, more research has come in since then and the time had finally come for a complete overhaul of this very popular handbook (it still gets downloaded a couple of thousand times in most months!). The two authors of the original handbook - Stephan Lewandowsky and John Cook - got in touch with other researchers who look into how best to counter misinformation and 20 of them signed up as co-authors. The result of their work can be downloaded as The Debunking Handbook 2020.

The handbook is a consensus document that was created by an innovative process that involved a series of predefined steps, all of which were followed and documented and are publicly available. The authors were invited based on their scientific status in the field, and they all agreed on all points made in the handbook. We therefore believe that the new Handbook reflects the scientific consensus about how to combat misinformation. Read more about the consensus process.

After its initial publication in October 2020, it didn't take long for the first translation - German - to make an appearance, followed in fairly short order by Italian and Turkish. Since then, several translations have been added annually and this year we published French on November 28, getting us up to 20 translations of this handbook!

With this 20th translation, The Debunking Handbook 2020 has now caught up with The Conspiracy Theory Handbook for which we managed to reach this milestone earlier this year!

The Debunking Handbook distills the most important research findings and current expert advice about debunking misinformation and contains information about these topics available in four excerpts:

Part 1:

• Misinformation can do damage
• Where does misinformation come from?
• Misinformation can be sticky
• Sticky myths leave other marks

Part 2:

• Prevent misinformation from sticking if you can
• Simple steps to greater media literacy
• The strategic map of debunking
• Who should debunk?

Part 3:

• The elusive backfire effects
• Role of worldview in belief confirmation

Part 4:

• Debunk often and properly
• Collective action: Debunking on social media

None of these translations would have been possible without dedicated volunteer translators around the globe, offering their help and spend time on the translations. Just as important is the work done by Wendy Cook who designed the handbook in the first place. She has become an integral part of the translation effort as she copies the prepared translations into her layout file to create the PDF-proofs and finalized versions for each language.

List of translators sorted by language:

Interested to help with translations of the Debunking Handbook?

Are you a native speaker of a language we don't yet have a translation for and would you like to fill that gap?  If your answer is 'Yes', then please let us know by filling out the short form below. I'll then be in touch as soon as possible to let you know about the next steps.