Educational game as a practice for developing students' critical thinking skills regarding manipulations on the Internet

Introduction. Expanded digitalization widens the gap between the increasing immersion of young people in the digital space and their ability to identify, manage and resist the destructive potential of the information flow of the Internet environment. Increasing threats to personal security and improved technologies for manipulating public opinion and consciousness makes developed critical thinking skills and increased resistance to manipulative and destructive online content particularly relevant for the young generation The paper aims to determine the potential of an educational game in developing critical thinking skills among students in relation to manipulations on the Internet. Materials and methods. 147 students of Tomsk State University (Russian Federation) took part in the pilot study. Research methods were: 1) a questionnaire for self-assessment of the ability to identify manipulative techniques and assess the impact of information on own psycho-emotional state; 2) a test task for forming skills in recognizing manipulative techniques. Statistical data was processed using the Mann Whitney U test and the Wilcoxon t-test. Research results. A pilot experimental study revealed the following: 1) respondents tend to overestimate their ability to determine the manipulative potential of Internet content, as well as their ability to resist it and realize its impact on their psycho-emotional state; 2) after the game, the experimental group demonstrates increased skills in identifying all the five manipulation techniques (the number of respondents able to recognize a conspiracy theory increased by 6.8 times, emotional speech by 1.4 times; scapegoating by 7.6 times; attacking by 1.3 times, and a false dichotomy by 10.7 times); 3) in recognizing three manipulation techniques, the experimental and control groups show significant differences (p <0.001). After the game, the participants demonstrate the skills of accurately recognizing conspiracy theory, scapegoating, and false dichotomy. Conclusion. The suggested gaming practice has a high potential for developing critical thinking skills in relation to manipulation techniques on the Internet (in the context of digital interaction and information impact).