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arXiv · 2601.22394

Conversational Inoculation to Enhance Resistance to Misinformation

Dániel Szabó·Chi-Lan Yang·Aku Visuri·Jonas Oppenlaender·Bharathi Sekar·Koji Yatani·Simo Hosio
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Abstract

Proliferation of misinformation is a globally acknowledged problem. Cognitive Inoculation helps build resistance to different forms of persuasion, such as misinformation. We investigate Conversational Inoculation, a method to help people build resistance to misinformation through dynamic conversations with a chatbot. We built a Web-based system to implement the method, and conducted a within-subject user experiment to compare it with two traditional inoculation methods. Our results validate Conversational Inoculation as a viable novel method, and show how it was able to enhance participants' resistance to misinformation. A qualitative analysis of the conversations between participants and the chatbot reveal independence and trust as factors that boosted the efficiency of Conversational Inoculation, and friction of interaction as a factor hindering it. We discuss the opportunities and challenges of using Conversational Inoculation to combat misinformation. Our work contributes a timely investigation and a promising research direction in scalable ways to combat misinformation.

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Dániel Szabó, Chi-Lan Yang, Aku Visuri, Jonas Oppenlaender, Bharathi Sekar, Koji Yatani, Simo Hosio. 2026-01-29. Conversational Inoculation to Enhance Resistance to Misinformation. https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.379095

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