Emerging
Practices that show potential to achieve desirable public health outcomes in a specific real-life setting and produce early results that are consistent with the objectives of the activities and thus indicate effectiveness.

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

Basol, M., Roozenbeek, J., Berriche, M., Uenal, F., McClanahan, W. P., Linden, S. V. D.

Release Date:

Peer Review Study

French
German
Outreach/ Education/ Communications
Social and Community Context
Tools Included
Outside U.S.
Facemask

Mitigation and Prevention

The researchers tested the effectiveness of “Go Viral!”, a 5-minute online game designed to improve players’ ability to spot COVID-19-related misinformation, in comparison to a passive “prebunking” intervention (UNESCO infographics) and to a control group. The authors found that “Go Viral!” improves players’ ability to spot misinformation, as well as their confidence in their ability to spot misinformation. This effect remains at least one week after playing the game. While the UNESCO infographics also improved viewers’ ability to spot misinformation and their confidence in their ability to spot misinformation, the effect size for “Go Viral!” was larger, and the players reported being more likely to share “Go Viral!” with their networks on social media compared with the group that viewed the graphics. While the results are promising, there are several limitations. The study did not include an explicit equity focus and the game is not accessible to individuals without internet.

Resource Details

Outcomes of Interest

Priority Population(s)

Setting(s) of Implementation

Geographic Area of Implementation

Implementation Period

2020