Inoculating against the spread of Islamophobic and radical-Islamist disinformation
Open accessAbstract
We report the results of a preregistered study that tested the effectiveness of inoculating participants against Islamophobic and radical-Islamist disinformation. Participants in the experimental (inoculation) condition watched a video that explained common rhetorical markers of radical-Islamist and Islamophobic disinformation that had been identified in an analysis of YouTube content. The information was presented in a neutral context not involving Islam and focused on analysis of the misleading argumentation. The control group watched a video about an unrelated topic. Participants were then exposed to target videos with “gateway” content that constituted an entry point to potential Islamist or Islamophobic radicalization. Both videos contained numerous items of disinformation. Participants then answered a variety of questions such as how likely they were to share the video, their level of agreement, and their perceived accuracy of the video. Participants who had received the inoculation displayed less agreement with the video content, perceived the video as less reliable, and were less likely to share it in comparison with participants in the control group. The study provides support for the use of argument-based inoculation in combatting extremist messages.
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Inoculation videos can be applied in a wide range of issue domains, including reducing susceptibility to radicalizing content.
“Inoculation videos can be applied in a wide range of issue domains, including reducing susceptibility to radicalizing content (5).”
From Psychological inoculation improves resilience against misinformation on social media (2022) · cites this paper as [5]
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- Authors
- Lewandowsky, S., & Yesilada, M.
- Affiliations
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Lewandowsky, Stephan
- Venue
- Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications
- Published
- 2021-08-19
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 57-57
- ISSN
- 2365-7464 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8374109
- OpenAlex
- W3193577832
- Cited by
- 62
- References
- 81
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 15.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Cognitive Research Principles and Implications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (via CREST at University of Lancaster)
- alexander von humboldt-stiftung (Research Award)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Islamic Finance and Communication
- Keywords
- inoculation, disinformation, Islamophobia, Islamic fundamentalism, extremist content, misinformation sharing, perceived accuracy, YouTube, countering violent extremism
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Islam, Vaccination, Social Media
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