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

Department of Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

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
Journal	Current Opinion in Psychology
Volume	67
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102194
State	Published - 1 Feb 2026

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Psychology

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10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102194

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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.",

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

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AU - Simchon, Almog

AU - Zipori, Tomer

AU - Teitelbaum, Louis

AU - Lewandowsky, Stephan

AU - van der Linden, Sander

PY - 2026/2/1

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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.

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DO - 10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102194

M3 - Review article

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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

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