A Signal Detection Theory Meta-Analysis of Psychological Inoculation Against Misinformation

Almog Simchon; Tomer  Zipori; Louis Teitelbaum; Stephan Lewandowsky; Sander Van Der Linden

doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102194

A Signal Detection Theory Meta-Analysis of Psychological Inoculation Against Misinformation

Almog Simchon^*, Tomer Zipori, Louis Teitelbaum, Stephan Lewandowsky, Sander Van Der Linden^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The spread of harmful misinformation poses a growing global threat, undermining trust in science, public health, and democracy. Psychological inoculation (i.e. “prebunking”) offers a promising approach to help people distinguish credible from manipulative content. We re-analyzed 33 inoculation experiments (combined N = 37,025) using Signal Detection Theory within a hierarchical Bayesian framework. Results show that both gamified and video-based interventions consistently improve discrimination between reliable and unreliable news, without increasing response bias—that is, participants did not become more uniformly skeptical or credulous. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of psychological inoculation in enhancing discrimination while avoiding unintended side effects on trust in credible news, offering robust support for its use as a scalable misinformation intervention.

Original language	English
Article number	102194
Number of pages	8
Journal	Current Opinion in Psychology
Volume	67
Early online date	14 Oct 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102194
Publication status	Published - 1 Feb 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Research Groups and Themes

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Keywords

Inoculation
Misinformation
signal detection theory

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title = "A Signal Detection Theory Meta-Analysis of Psychological Inoculation Against Misinformation",

abstract = "The spread of harmful misinformation poses a growing global threat, undermining trust in science, public health, and democracy. Psychological inoculation (i.e. “prebunking”) offers a promising approach to help people distinguish credible from manipulative content. We re-analyzed 33 inoculation experiments (combined N = 37,025) using Signal Detection Theory within a hierarchical Bayesian framework. Results show that both gamified and video-based interventions consistently improve discrimination between reliable and unreliable news, without increasing response bias—that is, participants did not become more uniformly skeptical or credulous. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of psychological inoculation in enhancing discrimination while avoiding unintended side effects on trust in credible news, offering robust support for its use as a scalable misinformation intervention. ",

keywords = "Inoculation, Misinformation, signal detection theory",

author = "Almog Simchon and Tomer Zipori and Louis Teitelbaum and Stephan Lewandowsky and \{Van Der Linden\}, Sander",

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doi = "10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102194",

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T1 - A Signal Detection Theory Meta-Analysis of Psychological Inoculation Against Misinformation

AU - Simchon, Almog

AU - Zipori, Tomer

AU - Teitelbaum, Louis

AU - Lewandowsky, Stephan

AU - Van Der Linden, Sander

PY - 2026/2/1

Y1 - 2026/2/1

N2 - The spread of harmful misinformation poses a growing global threat, undermining trust in science, public health, and democracy. Psychological inoculation (i.e. “prebunking”) offers a promising approach to help people distinguish credible from manipulative content. We re-analyzed 33 inoculation experiments (combined N = 37,025) using Signal Detection Theory within a hierarchical Bayesian framework. Results show that both gamified and video-based interventions consistently improve discrimination between reliable and unreliable news, without increasing response bias—that is, participants did not become more uniformly skeptical or credulous. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of psychological inoculation in enhancing discrimination while avoiding unintended side effects on trust in credible news, offering robust support for its use as a scalable misinformation intervention.

AB - The spread of harmful misinformation poses a growing global threat, undermining trust in science, public health, and democracy. Psychological inoculation (i.e. “prebunking”) offers a promising approach to help people distinguish credible from manipulative content. We re-analyzed 33 inoculation experiments (combined N = 37,025) using Signal Detection Theory within a hierarchical Bayesian framework. Results show that both gamified and video-based interventions consistently improve discrimination between reliable and unreliable news, without increasing response bias—that is, participants did not become more uniformly skeptical or credulous. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of psychological inoculation in enhancing discrimination while avoiding unintended side effects on trust in credible news, offering robust support for its use as a scalable misinformation intervention.

KW - Inoculation

KW - Misinformation

KW - signal detection theory

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DO - 10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102194

M3 - Article (Academic Journal)

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SN - 2352-250X

VL - 67

JO - Current Opinion in Psychology

JF - Current Opinion in Psychology

M1 - 102194

ER -

A Signal Detection Theory Meta-Analysis of Psychological Inoculation Against Misinformation

Abstract

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