"Misinformation is threatening medicine, science, politics, social justice, and international relations, in problems such as vaccine hesitancy, climate change denial, conspiracy theories, claims of racial inferiority, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Barack Obama has described disinformation--defined as misinformation that is spread deliberately by people who know it is false--as the single biggest threat to democracy. Dealing with misinformation requires explanation of how information is generated and spread, and how it breaks down but can be mended. This book offers a deep account of information and misinformation that provides concrete advice on how improved thinking and communication can benefit individuals and societies. Concern with misinformation is widespread, but this book is unique in both depth and breadth. The depth comes from an original theory of information as deriving from four processes: acquisition, inference, memory, and spread, or AIMS. Each of these is spelled out in terms of concrete cognitive and behavioral mechanisms that generate real information when done well, but which can easily break down and produce misinformation. Fortunately, misinformation can be transformed into real information using the same mechanisms.

The breadth of the book comes from applying the AIMS theory of information and misinformation to five different domains: COVID-19, climate change, conspiracy theories, inequality, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine"--.