NEUROSCIENCE UNVEILING DISINFORMATION: The Brain as a Battlefield between Truth and Emotion

Digital Overload and Social Midia

🧠 The Battlefield between Truth and Emotion

We live in an era in which lies have evolved. What used to be street corner rumours is now high-resolution emotional engineering — algorithms that know our fears, desires and biases better than we know ourselves.

Fake news is not merely false information: it is precise neurological stimuli, designed to hijack our brain chemistry. 🧬

But there is good news: neuroscience is mapping this code. ✨ By understanding how the brain processes information, emotion and identity, we begin to dismantle the biological algorithm of disinformation — and, more importantly, to train our minds to resist it.

This text explores the neurobiology of belief and manipulation, showing what happens in the brain of those who create, share and believe fake news — and how we can use this knowledge to protect ourselves. 🛡️

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⚙️ The brain chemistry of disinformation: dopamine, pleasure and validation

Neural Circuitry and Dopamine

When you share a piece of news that confirms your beliefs, your brain is not seeking truth — it is seeking reward.

🎯 Each like, comment or share activates the reward system, releasing dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and motivation (Berridge & Robinson, 1998).

Neuroimaging studies show that:

• 🧠 Nucleus accumbens

• 🧠 Orbitofrontal cortex

are activated when we receive information that validates our opinions (Sharot et al., 2009; Kaplan et al., 2016).

💡 Key concept:

It is the same circuit activated by food, sex and drugs. Fake news is the brain's cognitive sugar — it provides quick energy, generates dependency and reduces critical thinking.

And on social media, this mechanism is amplified: intermittent dopamine, unpredictable validation and constant emotional reinforcement (Montag et al., 2019).

The more dopamine, the greater the impulse to share — and the less time to check the source. 📱

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🧩 The brain of those who create fake news: when manipulating becomes pleasurable

Neural Synapse in Action (Macro)

The intentional production of disinformation has its own neural signature. 🧪

Research on moral disengagement (Bandura, 2016) and ethical decision-making (Greene et al., 2001; Abe & Greene, 2014) shows that:

📉 Lower activation:

• ❌ Anterior cingulate cortex (responsible for empathy, moral conflict and self-regulation)

📈 Higher activation:

• ✅ Mesolimbic dopaminergic circuit (linked to pleasure, power and control)

💡 What does this mean?

Manipulating others' beliefs activates the chemistry of social pleasure. For these people, deliberate lying:

• ✔️ Reduces moral discomfort

• ✔️ Increases sense of control

• ✔️ Generates dopamine

• ✔️ Creates positive reinforcement

Therefore, creating fake news is not only political or ideological — it is also neurochemical. The brain learns that manipulation works… and repeats. 🔄

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💭 The brain of those who believe: emotion, identity and the hijacking of reason

Conflicting Brain - Emotion vs. Reason

Believing in fake news is not a sign of ignorance. It is a consequence of human neural architecture. 🧠

Our brain evolved to detect threats, not to process logical contradictions.

When a piece of news triggers:

• 😨 Fear

• 😡 Anger

• 😤 Indignation

the limbic system takes control, and the prefrontal cortex — responsible for critical thinking — is temporarily silenced (LeDoux, 2000).

🚨 Symbolic threat and identity defence

The brain does not differentiate well between physical and symbolic threats.

When information challenges our political, moral or religious beliefs:

• 🔥 The amygdala fires as if we were in real danger (Kaplan et al., 2016)

• ⚡ Adrenaline and cortisol rise

• 🥊 The body enters fight or flight mode — even if the "enemy" is just an idea

⚠️ Warning:

fMRI studies show that when processing information contrary to our convictions, the brain activates the same areas involved in physical pain and social rejection (Eisenberger et al., 2003).

Result: The more threatened the identity, the more emotional — and less analytical — the response.

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💣 The chemical cocktail of disinformation

Neurotransmitters

When fake news is shared, three neurotransmitters come into action:

Neurotransmitter	Effect
🟢 Dopamine	Pleasure of being right
🔴 Adrenaline	Urgency and alertness
🟡 Noradrenaline	Vigilance and emotional focus

💡 Why do we share before thinking?

This chemical cocktail explains everything: the body reacts first; reasoning comes later.Fake news does not convince — it activates. And emotional activation consolidates beliefs. 🎯

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🧠 The vulnerable brain and the trained brain: the science of prebunking

Brain Transformation - from chaos to order

Vulnerability to disinformation is not a moral or cognitive failing — it is the result of our biology. But the same brain that believes can learn to doubt. 💪

And this is where the concept of prebunking comes in: the cognitive vaccine against manipulation.

💉 What is prebunking?

Unlike debunking, which tries to correct afterwards, prebunking anticipates manipulation:

• ✅ Teaches the brain to recognise distortion tactics

• ✅ Exposes the mind to "weakened versions" of the lie

• ✅ Creates cognitive antibodies (Roozenbeek & van der Linden, 2019)

💡 It works like a mental vaccine. Research shows it works even when fake news confirms personal beliefs (Basol et al., 2020).

🤔 But... if I already know the tactics, why do I still fall for it?

Because knowing is not the same as neutralising.

Fake news attacks:

• 💥 Emotional reactivity

• ⚡ Automatic impulses

• 🤝 Need for belonging

• 🎭 Identity biases

• 🎯 Social dopamine

⚠️ The uncomfortable truth:

You may know how to recognise manipulation — but if the content activates fear or validation, the brain reacts before you think.

Prebunking only works when it becomes cognitive training, not when it is merely passive knowledge.

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🎯 How to apply prebunking in practice

Prebuking - The Cognitive Vaccine

1. 🧘 Create cognitive pauses

Breathe before reacting. This:

• ✔️ Reactivates the prefrontal cortex

• ✔️ Reduces amygdala dominance

• ✔️ Restores clarity

2. 🔍 Question the source, not just the content

Ask:

• 🤔 Who said it?

• 🤔 Why?

• 🤔 What does this person gain from it?

This activates metacognitive networks, taking you out of autopilot.

3. 🌐 Vary your information environment

Information diversity increases:

• 🧠 Cognitive flexibility

• 🔗 Hippocampus–prefrontal cortex connectivity

• 🛡️ Resistance to confirmation bias

4. 🎮 Play against manipulation

The Bad News Game (Cambridge) is the classic example.

When you learn to create fake news:

• ✅ You understand the tactics

• ✅ Recognise emotional triggers

• ✅ Reduce reactivity

• ✅ Create real cognitive defence

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🌱 Conclusion: the brain as antidote

Professional Header

Neuroscience does not merely explain fake news — it offers the map to disarm it. 🗺️

When we understand how emotion, identity and reward shape our beliefs, we gain tools to break the chemical cycle of disinformation.

The mind does not need to be manipulated — it can be trained. 💪

And the future does not belong to the brain that believes what it feels, but to the one that feels, thinks and chooses — in the right order. 🧠✨

📚 Complete references

• Abe, N., & Greene, J. D. (2014). Response to anticipated reward in the nucleus accumbens predicts behavior in an independent test of honesty. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(32), 10564-10572.

• Bandura, A. (2016). Moral disengagement: How people do harm and live with themselves. Worth Publishers.

• Basol, M., et al. (2020). Good news about bad news: Gamified inoculation boosts confidence and cognitive immunity against fake news. Journal of Cognition, 3(1), 2.

• Berridge, K. C., & Robinson, T. E. (1998). What is the role of dopamine in reward: hedonic impact, reward learning, or incentive salience? Brain Research Reviews, 28(3), 309-369.

• Eisenberger, N. I., et al. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302(5643), 290-292.

• Greene, J. D., et al. (2001). An fMRI investigation of emotional engagement in moral judgment. Science, 293(5537), 2105-2108.

• Kaplan, J. T., et al. (2016). Neural correlates of maintaining one's political beliefs in the face of counterevidence. Scientific Reports, 6, 39589.

• LeDoux, J. E. (2000). Emotion circuits in the brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23(1), 155-184.

• Montag, C., et al. (2019). Addictive features of social media/messenger platforms and freemium games against the background of psychological and economic theories. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(14), 2612.

• Nyhan, B., & Reifler, J. (2010). When corrections fail: The persistence of political misperceptions. Political Behavior, 32(2), 303-330.

• Roozenbeek, J., & van der Linden, S. (2019). Fake news game confers psychological resistance against online misinformation. Palgrave Communications, 5(1), 1-10.

• Sharot, T., et al. (2009). How choice reveals and shapes expected hedonic outcome. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(12), 3760-3765.