Tune in to the prebunking network! Development and validation of six inoculation videos that prebunk manipulation tactics and logical fallacies in misinformation

Abstract

Abstract Meta‐analyses have demonstrated how inoculation interventions increase the detection of misinformation, but their scalability has remained elusive. To address this, Study 1 (pre‐registered; N = 1,583) tested the efficacy of three short inoculation videos (prebunks) against three common manipulation tactics used in misinformation: (1) polarization, (2) conspiracy theories, and (3) fake experts. Results indicated that all three inoculation videos (vs. control) increased the detection of relevant manipulative content without altering perceptions of non‐manipulative content, but only the polarization inoculation video increased manipulation discernment (i.e., increased ability to distinguish between manipulative and non‐manipulative content). In Study 2 (pre‐registered; N = 1,603), we tested the efficacy of three more inoculation videos containing logic‐based prebunks against logical fallacies commonly used in misinformation: (1) whataboutism, (2) the moving the goalposts fallacy, and (3) the strawman fallacy. Detection of the relevant fallacious content was higher in all conditions (vs. control), but only the strawman fallacy inoculation video increased fallacy discernment. The moving the goalposts fallacy inoculation video appeared to increase overall distrust of relevant content, whereas the other two videos did not alter perceptions of relevant non‐fallacious content. We discuss the implications and limitations of these findings.