The project that gave rise to Immersive Truth was made possible by a generous, anonymous donor whose commitment to helping fight psychological manipulation was deeply personal. Through their ancestors who survived the Holocaust, the donor and their spouse had inherited a clear and sobering understanding of how disinformation can lead to real-world violence. They recognized the patterns, the rhetoric, and the consequences—not in theory, but in family history. The donor was motivated not only by the rise of deceptive media tactics but by how easily those around them could be persuaded by lies. Their support allowed us to create a resource that is experimental, creative, and focused on helping people recognize and resist the many forms of manipulative communication we all encounter.

We are proud to say that Immersive Truth is an Open Educational Resource, or OER. This means it is openly licensed, so anyone with internet access can read, view, and listen to Immersive Truth content at ImmersiveTruth.org or https://opentextbooks.library.arizona.edu/immersivetruth/. It also means anyone including course instructors can also adopt and even adapt this resource for free as long as you attribute the content to the original authors.

What you will find in here

Immersive Truth opens with an Introduction, which outlines the key terms that guide the rest of the text. We distinguish between misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, and propaganda, while acknowledging that their distinctions are slippery as information spreads. We preview the concept of prebunking, or identifying sources and methods of misinformation before they spread. We can’t let liars have all the fun, right? For truth to compete with misinformation, it will sometimes have to be immersive.

In Part I: Background and Interventions, we explore the wide range of approaches already in use to confront disinformation and propaganda. The first chapter, Information Literacy, outlines the long-standing efforts by educators, librarians, and journalists to empower individuals to seek and evaluate information critically. Debunking and Prebunking explains these two complementary approaches: one reactive, the other preventative. Inoculation Theory anchors our intervention design in psychological research, demonstrating how early exposure to manipulative tactics in weakened form can help people build resistance. In Verification and Fact-Checking, we describe the tools and practices used to test the accuracy of claims and images, while acknowledging the cultural barriers to their acceptance. Content Moderation turns our focus to the work platforms do to remove or demote harmful content—and the challenges of transparency, labor, and equity that come with it. In the final chapter in Part 1, Bot Detection introduces how researchers are identifying automated accounts that distort conversations and amplify falsehoods online.

Part II: Taking Action, Part One: Prebunking Media features a set of original audio ads we designed to simulate and expose disinformation tactics. These short, metaphorical sketches invite listeners to reflect on how persuasive techniques operate in familiar, often humorous contexts. In Buy this Idea!, two friends negotiate their beliefs around an influencer with a strong chin in the “marketplace of ideas”. New Friends walks us through how social belonging can push someone to accept messages they don’t fully trust, when they could be singing karaoke. Dog Show uses a schnauzer and online deception to illustrate how disinformation often plays on feelings of fear. Zoo Moms tackles wellness influencer messaging and a bear. Heroes and Sidekicks explores how the allure of good-versus-evil narratives is no match for the right underpants. We created each piece to be short, funny, and demonstrative of how we can all act better when deception shows up in our interactions. We try to show not only where to be critical, but when and how to be compassionate.

Part III: Taking Action, Part Two: Liar’s Landscape Game presents a classroom-ready simulation where players navigate a mapped landscape marked with the most common logical fallacies. Players learn how to spot fallacious arguments including straw man, red herrings, ad hominem attacks, and false equivalence. You may want to dive deeper into this game or these concepts through our other open educational resource, Decoding Deception: A highly visual textbook presenting lessons and activities on critical thinking and logic fallacies presented using visuals and interactive activities.

Part IV: Read More About Disinformation extends the conversation through guest-authored articles from researchers and practitioners in the field. This section is designed for anyone who adopts this resource to fill in newer stories that suit their interests from the excellent openly licensed online journal The Conversation or other open resources.

Throughout Immersive Truth, we aim to balance analysis with action, creativity, empathy, and a peppering of humor. We believe that teaching people to recognize manipulation will not work simply by delivering facts, but by immersing them in the emotions, human dynamics, and stories that make up our world. We hope you find it useful, and tell a friend.