EGU21-12138
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-12138
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Towards psychological herd immunity: Cross-cultural evidence for two prebunking interventions against COVID-19 misinformation

Jon Roozenbeek1 and Sarah Dryhurst2
Jon Roozenbeek and Sarah Dryhurst
  • 1University of Cambridge, Department of Psychology, United Kingdom of Great Britain – England, Scotland, Wales (jjr51@cam.ac.uk)
  • 2Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom of Great Britain - England, Scotland, Wales

Misinformation about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is a pressing societal challenge. Across two studies, one preregistered (n = 1,771 and n = 1,777), we assess the efficacy of two “prebunking” interventions aimed at improving people’s ability to spot manipulation techniques commonly used in COVID-19 misinformation, across three different cultural contexts (English, French, and German). We find that Go Viral!, a novel 5-minute “prebunking” browser game, (a) increases the perceived manipulativeness of misinformation about COVID-19, (b) improves people’s confidence in their ability to spot misinformation, and (c) reduces self-reported willingness to share misinformation with others. The first two effects remain significant for at least one week after gameplay. We also find that reading real-world infographics from UNESCO improve people’s ability and confidence in spotting COVID-19 misinformation (albeit with a smaller effect size than the game). 

How to cite: Roozenbeek, J. and Dryhurst, S.: Towards psychological herd immunity: Cross-cultural evidence for two prebunking interventions against COVID-19 misinformation, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-12138, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-12138, 2021.