Evaluating Prebunking and Nudge Techniques in Tackling Misinformation: A Between-Subject Study on Social Media Platforms

Combating misinformation on social media is critical, with preemptive strategies like prebunking and nudging gaining prominence. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of nudge and prebunking strategies in enhancing individuals' ability to distinguish between misinformation and factual content and their confidence in their accuracy judgments. Employing a between-subject experimental design, participants (N = 328) were categorised into three conditions: a control condition with no intervention, a nudge condition exposed to behavioural cues to promote critical scrutiny of information and a prebunking condition receiving implicit context about the claim. The results indicate that the prebunking message improves the identification of misinformation and confidence in judgments compared to nudging and control interventions. No significant difference was observed between the nudge and control groups regarding judgment accuracy or confidence. However, individual differences in interventions were noted. The study reveals that deliberate thinkers require some form of intervention to discern false news claims effectively. Moreover, it was found that participants with right-leaning political views were less influenced by prebunking messages, suggesting that nudges might be more effective for this demographic. These findings highlight the necessity of adopting a user-centric approach that considers individual characteristics to tailor interventions that may be required to combat misinformation effectively among diverse user groups on social media platforms.