Shots and Boosters: Exploring the Use of Combined Prebunking Interventions to Raise Critical Thinking and Create Long-Term Protection Against Misinformation

TL;DR

This paper investigates combining educational and AI-supported interventions to enhance critical thinking and long-term resilience against misinformation in online media, moving beyond traditional debunking methods.

Contribution

It introduces a novel integrated approach using AI to support critical thinking interventions aimed at improving media literacy and misinformation resistance.

Findings

AI can effectively support critical thinking interventions

Combined strategies improve long-term misinformation resilience

Design concept for AI-driven media literacy tools

Abstract

The problem of how to effectively mitigate the flow of misinformation remains a significant challenge. The classical approach to this is public disapproval of claims or "debunking." The approach is still widely used on social media, but it has some severe limitations in terms of applicability and efficiency. An alternative strategy is to enhance individuals' critical thinking through educational interventions. Instead of merely disproving misinformation, these approaches aim to strengthen users' reasoning skills, enabling them to evaluate and reject false information independently. In this position paper, we explore a combination of intervention methods designed to improve critical thinking in the context of online media consumption. We highlight the role of AI in supporting different stages of these interventions and present a design concept that integrates AI-driven strategies to foster critical reasoning and media literacy.