Gamified Inoculation Against Misinformation in India: A Randomized Control Trial

Abstract

Although the spread of misinformation is a pervasive and disruptive global problem, extant research is skewed towards “WEIRD” countries leaving questions about how to tackle misinformation in the developing world with different media and consumption patterns unanswered. We report the results of a game-based intervention against misinformation in India. The game is based on the mechanism of psychological inoculation; borrowed from the medical context, inoculation interventions aim to pre-emptively neutralize falsehoods and help audiences spot and resist misinformation strategies. Though the efficacy of these games has been repeatedly demonstrated in samples from Western countries, the present study conducted in north India (n = 757) did not replicate earlier findings. We found no significant impact of the intervention on the perceived reliability of messages containing misinformation, confidence judgments, and willingness to share information with others. Our experience presents a teachable moment for the unique challenges associated with complex cultural adaptations and field work in rural areas. These results have significant ramifications for designing misinformation interventions in developing countries where misinformation is largely spread via encrypted messaging applications such as WhatsApp. Our findings contribute to the small but growing body of work looking at how to adapt misinformation interventions to cross-cultural settings.