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2025-03-19 19:30 - Book Launch: Religion, Theology, and Stranger Things

What's On - Fri, 14/03/2025 - 09:46
Come along to the book launch of "Religion, Theology, and Stranger Things" co-edited by one of Ridley's own, Dr. Andy Byers, both in person at Ridley and online on Zoom!

News article or big oil ad?

In the battle against climate disinformation, native advertising is a fierce foe. A study published in the journal npj Climate Action by researchers from Boston University (BU) and the University of Cambridge, evaluates two promising tools to fight misleading native advertising campaigns put forth by big oil companies.

Many major news organisations now offer corporations the opportunity to pay for articles that mimic in tone and format the publication’s regular reported content. These ‘native advertisements’ are designed to camouflage seamlessly into their surroundings, containing only subtle disclosure messages often overlooked or misunderstood by readers. Fossil fuel companies are spending tens of millions of dollars to shape public perceptions of the climate crisis.

“Because these ads appear on reputable, trusted news platforms, and are formatted like reported pieces, they often come across to readers as genuine journalism,” said lead author Michelle Amazeen from BU’s College of Communication. “Research has shown native ads are really effective at swaying readers’ opinions.”

The study is the first to investigate how two mitigation strategies — disclosures and inoculations — may reduce climate misperceptions caused by exposure to native advertising from the fossil fuel industry. The authors found that when participants were shown a real native ad from ExxonMobil, disclosure messages helped them recognise advertising, while inoculations helped reduce their susceptibility to misleading claims.

“As fossil fuel companies invest in disguising their advertisements, this study furthers our understanding of how to help readers recognise when commercial content is masquerading as news and spreading climate misperceptions,” said co-author Benjamin Sovacool, also from BU.

“Our study showed that communication-led climate action is possible and scalable by countering covert greenwashing campaigns, such as native advertising, at the source,” said co-author Dr Ramit Debnath from Cambridge’s Department of Architecture. “The insights we’ve gained from this work will help us design better interventions for climate misinformation.”

The research builds on a growing body of work assessing how people recognise and respond to covert misinformation campaigns. By better understanding these processes, the researchers hope that they can prevent misinformation from taking root and changing people’s beliefs and actions on important issues like climate change.

‘The Future of Energy’ ad

Starting in 2018, readers of The New York Times website encountered what appeared to be an article, titled “The Future of Energy,” describing efforts by oil and gas giant ExxonMobil to invest in algae-based biofuels. Because it appeared beneath the Times’ masthead, in the outlet’s typical formatting and font, many readers likely missed the small banner at the top of the page mentioning that it was an ad sponsored by ExxonMobil.

The ad, part of a $5-million-dollar campaign, neglected to mention the company’s staggering carbon footprint. It also omitted key context, The Intercept reported, like that the stated goal for algae-based biofuel production would represent only 0.2% of the company’s overall refinery capacity. In a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Massachusetts cited the ad as evidence of the company’s “false and misleading” communications, with several states pursuing similar cases.

Putting two interventions to the test

The researchers examined how more than a thousand participants responded to “The Future of Energy” ad in a simulated social media feed.

Before viewing the ad, participants saw one, both, or neither of the following intervention messages:

An inoculation message designed to psychologically ‘inoculate’ readers from future influence by broadly warning them of potential exposures to misleading paid content. In this study, the inoculation message was a fictitious social media post from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reminding people to be wary of online misinformation.

A disclosure message with a simple line of text appearing on a post. In this study, the text “Paid Post by ExxonMobil” accompanied the piece. Studies have shown that more often than not, when native ads are shared on social media, this disclosure disappears.

Bolstering psychological resilience to native ads

The team found that the ad improved opinions of ExxonMobil’s sustainability across the study’s many participants, regardless of which messages they saw, but that the interventions helped to reduce this effect. Some of the key findings include:

The presence of a disclosure more than doubled the likelihood that a participant recognised the content as an ad. However, the participants who had seen a disclosure and those who had not were equally likely to agree with the statement “companies like ExxonMobil are investing heavily in becoming more environmentally friendly.”

Inoculation messages were much more effective than disclosures at protecting people’s existing beliefs on climate change, decreasing the likelihood that participants would agree with misleading claims presented in the ad.

“Disclosures helped people recognise advertising. However, they didn’t help them recognise that the material was biased and misleading,” said Amazeen. “Inoculation messaging provides general education that can be used to fill in that gap and help people resist its persuasive effects. Increasing general awareness about misinformation strategies used by self-interested actors, combined with clearer labels on sponsored content, will help people distinguish native ads from reported content.”

Reference:
Michelle A. Amazeen et al. ‘The “Future of Energy”? Building resilience to ExxonMobil’s disinformation through disclosures and inoculation.’ npj climate action (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44168-025-00209-6

Adapted from a Boston University story.

A sneaky form of advertising favoured by oil giants influences public opinion with climate action misperceptions, but researchers are studying potential solutions.

rob dobi vai Getty ImagesFueling the Fire of Misinformation - stock photo


The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes
Categories: Latest news

News article or big oil ad?

In the News - Thu, 06/03/2025 - 16:43

In the battle against climate disinformation, native advertising is a fierce foe. A study published in the journal npj Climate Action by researchers from Boston University (BU) and the University of Cambridge, evaluates two promising tools to fight misleading native advertising campaigns put forth by big oil companies.

Many major news organisations now offer corporations the opportunity to pay for articles that mimic in tone and format the publication’s regular reported content. These ‘native advertisements’ are designed to camouflage seamlessly into their surroundings, containing only subtle disclosure messages often overlooked or misunderstood by readers. Fossil fuel companies are spending tens of millions of dollars to shape public perceptions of the climate crisis.

“Because these ads appear on reputable, trusted news platforms, and are formatted like reported pieces, they often come across to readers as genuine journalism,” said lead author Michelle Amazeen from BU’s College of Communication. “Research has shown native ads are really effective at swaying readers’ opinions.”

The study is the first to investigate how two mitigation strategies — disclosures and inoculations — may reduce climate misperceptions caused by exposure to native advertising from the fossil fuel industry. The authors found that when participants were shown a real native ad from ExxonMobil, disclosure messages helped them recognise advertising, while inoculations helped reduce their susceptibility to misleading claims.

“As fossil fuel companies invest in disguising their advertisements, this study furthers our understanding of how to help readers recognise when commercial content is masquerading as news and spreading climate misperceptions,” said co-author Benjamin Sovacool, also from BU.

“Our study showed that communication-led climate action is possible and scalable by countering covert greenwashing campaigns, such as native advertising, at the source,” said co-author Dr Ramit Debnath from Cambridge’s Department of Architecture. “The insights we’ve gained from this work will help us design better interventions for climate misinformation.”

The research builds on a growing body of work assessing how people recognise and respond to covert misinformation campaigns. By better understanding these processes, the researchers hope that they can prevent misinformation from taking root and changing people’s beliefs and actions on important issues like climate change.

‘The Future of Energy’ ad

Starting in 2018, readers of The New York Times website encountered what appeared to be an article, titled “The Future of Energy,” describing efforts by oil and gas giant ExxonMobil to invest in algae-based biofuels. Because it appeared beneath the Times’ masthead, in the outlet’s typical formatting and font, many readers likely missed the small banner at the top of the page mentioning that it was an ad sponsored by ExxonMobil.

The ad, part of a $5-million-dollar campaign, neglected to mention the company’s staggering carbon footprint. It also omitted key context, The Intercept reported, like that the stated goal for algae-based biofuel production would represent only 0.2% of the company’s overall refinery capacity. In a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Massachusetts cited the ad as evidence of the company’s “false and misleading” communications, with several states pursuing similar cases.

Putting two interventions to the test

The researchers examined how more than a thousand participants responded to “The Future of Energy” ad in a simulated social media feed.

Before viewing the ad, participants saw one, both, or neither of the following intervention messages:

An inoculation message designed to psychologically ‘inoculate’ readers from future influence by broadly warning them of potential exposures to misleading paid content. In this study, the inoculation message was a fictitious social media post from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reminding people to be wary of online misinformation.

A disclosure message with a simple line of text appearing on a post. In this study, the text “Paid Post by ExxonMobil” accompanied the piece. Studies have shown that more often than not, when native ads are shared on social media, this disclosure disappears.

Bolstering psychological resilience to native ads

The team found that the ad improved opinions of ExxonMobil’s sustainability across the study’s many participants, regardless of which messages they saw, but that the interventions helped to reduce this effect. Some of the key findings include:

The presence of a disclosure more than doubled the likelihood that a participant recognised the content as an ad. However, the participants who had seen a disclosure and those who had not were equally likely to agree with the statement “companies like ExxonMobil are investing heavily in becoming more environmentally friendly.”

Inoculation messages were much more effective than disclosures at protecting people’s existing beliefs on climate change, decreasing the likelihood that participants would agree with misleading claims presented in the ad.

“Disclosures helped people recognise advertising. However, they didn’t help them recognise that the material was biased and misleading,” said Amazeen. “Inoculation messaging provides general education that can be used to fill in that gap and help people resist its persuasive effects. Increasing general awareness about misinformation strategies used by self-interested actors, combined with clearer labels on sponsored content, will help people distinguish native ads from reported content.”

Reference:
Michelle A. Amazeen et al. ‘The “Future of Energy”? Building resilience to ExxonMobil’s disinformation through disclosures and inoculation.’ npj climate action (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44168-025-00209-6

Adapted from a Boston University story.

A sneaky form of advertising favoured by oil giants influences public opinion with climate action misperceptions, but researchers are studying potential solutions.

rob dobi vai Getty ImagesFueling the Fire of Misinformation - stock photo


The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

Yes

2025-03-14 18:00 - Pembroke House: 140 years of community, connections and change

What's On - Wed, 05/03/2025 - 15:31
In 1885, Pembroke students, shocked by growing poverty and inequality, founded a mission in Walworth, SE London, Pembroke House. They sought a new approach: taking up residence to live, work and solve problems alongside local communities. This talk will explore the ideas that shaped Pembroke House’s beginnings, its role in Walworth today, and the questions being asked about its future.

2025-04-27 09:00 - Artist Award Final - CIPFA 2025

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
This year our festival concludes with the final round of the competition! Do not miss the exquisite performances by our competition finalists, the remarkably talented young pianists!

2025-04-14 08:30 - Wild Garden Walks

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
Early morning guided walks exploring British wild plants and their folklore

2025-03-22 11:00 - Here is a Gale Warning: Art, Crisis & Survival

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
This exhibition presents eight contemporary artists whose works offer vantage points on a world in perpetual crisis.

2025-03-20 18:00 - Lord Patrick Vallance - Where does innovation happen? The Wilson Lecture 2025

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
Lord Patrick Vallance will speak on the topic 'Where does innovation happen?'

2025-03-18 17:00 - From Rights to Protection: Reframing Women's Empowerment for Authoritarian Democracy

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
Public Lecture by Professor Poulami Roychowdhury, chaired by Professor Manali Desai.

2025-03-15 11:00 - Hidden Cambridge "Off-The-Beaten-Track" walking tour

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
No ordinary walking tour! This will include various things we are quietly confident will be new even to locals and we’ll go to one site that holds more than a few fascinating stories – the University Library site!

2025-03-05 19:00 - Panel Discussion: Young People and Art Today

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
Join us for a panel discussion on young people and art today for our current exhibition Paint What Matters!

2025-03-07 18:00 - Women of Wolfson 2025

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
Join Wolfson President, Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu, along with a panel of inspirational Wolfson women who will be discussing their academic and professional journeys.

2025-03-09 11:00 - Paint What Matters! Art by Children and Young People in Cambridge

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
Paint What Matters! is a unique exhibition at Kettle’s Yard celebrating the talent and creativity of children and young people in Cambridge. The exhibition will share the work of over 500 young artists aged 4-21 years across our two galleries.

2025-03-09 14:00 - Paint What Matters! Open Studio

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
Be inspired by the artworks in Paint What Matters! and join our artist to discover new techniques and share what matters to you!

2025-04-25 19:30 - Pasquale Iannone Piano Recital - CIPFA 2025

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
Very excited to welcome again the fantastic Italian pianist at the Churchill College, where he swirled with his virtuosity on piano!

2025-04-26 19:30 - Ronan O’Hora Piano Recital - Final Concert of CIPFA 2025

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
Come listen the pianist star Ronan O’Hora's stunning performance at the final concert of CIPFA-you won't want to miss it!

2025-04-24 19:30 - Ruben Talon Piano Recital - CIPFA 2025

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
Come listen Ruben Talon performs a stunning piano recital presenting the most demanding piano repertoires - don’t miss out the chance!

2025-04-23 19:30 - Boris Berman Piano Recital - CIPFA 2025

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
Don’t miss listening to the finest musical giants, pianist Boris Berman's amazing pianism! It is a rare chance to hear him in the UK.

2025-04-22 19:30 - MinJung Baek Piano Recital - Opening Concert of CIPFA 2025

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
Come join us for MinJung Baek's Piano Recital, the grand opening concert of CIPFA - it's going to be a night to remember!

2025-03-12 18:30 - Becoming William Morris - 6 years of Morris Quarter

What's On - Mon, 03/03/2025 - 17:47
We are delighted host Freddie Yauner for his talk Becoming William Morris: 6 Years of Morris Quarter on 12th March, 6.30pm - 8.30pm.