Debunking And Prebunking An Overview Immersive Truth

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 5, 2025, 9:58 PM

debunking and prebunking an overview immersive truth

There are two primary approaches to combating misinformation: debunking and prebunking. Both approaches attempt to foster trust in verified information and mitigate the negative impact of false claims. However, as we’ll see, the two approaches have some significant differences. Debunking involves identifying, analyzing, and disproving misinformation. There are three key steps to debunking false or misleading claims. The first, identification, is as simple as specifying what information or claim is potentially false or misleading.

It’s not particularly helpful, for instance, to speak in broad terms (for example, “Paul is lying”). Identification helps ensure everyone is on the same page about what’s being discussed. The second, verification, involves analyzing the information or claim that was identified. This analysis involves questioning source (where is the information coming from?) and context (is the information actually related to the topic it claims to be?), as discussed in more detail in the “Verification and... Part of this analysis can also involve pinpointing potential sources of disinformation, such as fake accounts or bots (explained further in the “Bot Detection” chapter of this book). The last step, disproving misinformation, comes if the verification process has determined that the information or claim needs refutation.

This step involves specifically stating what part or parts of the information don’t align with facts, preferably by presenting evidence that refutes the claim. Psychological research has offered valuable insights into how to combat misinformation. The studies conducted to date, however, have three limitations. First, pre-emptive ("prebunking") and retroactive ("debunking") interventions have mostly been examined in parallel, and thus it is unclear which of these two predominant approaches is more effective. Second, there has been a focus on misinformation that is explicitly false, but implied misinformation that uses literally true information to mislead is common in the real world. Finally, studies have relied mainly on questionnaire measures of reasoning, neglecting behavioural impacts of misinformation and interventions.

To offer incremental progress towards addressing these three issues, we conducted an experiment (N = 735) involving misinformation on fair trade. We contrasted the effectiveness of prebunking versus debunking and the impacts of implied versus explicit misinformation, and incorporated novel measures assessing consumer behaviours (i.e., willingness-to-pay; information seeking; online misinformation promotion) in addition to standard... In general, both prebunking and debunking reduced misinformation reliance. We also found that individuals tended to rely more on explicit than implied misinformation both with and without interventions. Keywords: fake news; inoculation; misinformation; refutation. © 2021 The British Psychological Society.

In an era when misinformation spreads like wildfire across the digital landscape, the need for effective strategies to counteract these challenges has grown exponentially in a very short period. Prebunking and Debunking are two approaches for countering the growing spread of misinformation online. Prebunking empowers individuals by teaching them to discern between true and false information and acts as a protective layer that comes into play even before people encounter malicious content. Debunking is the correction of false or misleading claims after exposure, aiming to undo or reverse the effects of a particular piece of misinformation. Debunking includes methods such as fact-checking, algorithmic correction on a platform, social correction by an individual or group of online peers, or fact-checking reports by expert organisations or journalists. An integrated approach which involves both strategies can be effective in countering the rapid spread of misinformation online.

Prebunking is a proactive practice that seeks to rebut erroneous information before it spreads. The goal is to train people to critically analyse information and develop ‘cognitive immunity’ so that they are less likely to be misled when they do encounter misinformation. The Prebunking approach, grounded in Inoculation theory, teaches people to recognise, analyse and avoid manipulation and misleading content so that they build resilience against the same. Inoculation theory, a social psychology framework, suggests that pre-emptively conferring psychological resistance against malicious persuasion attempts can reduce susceptibility to misinformation across cultures. As the term suggests, the MO is to help the mind in the present develop resistance to influence that it may encounter in the future. Just as medical vaccines or inoculations help the body build resistance to future infections by administering weakened doses of the harm agent, inoculation theory seeks to teach people fact from fiction through exposure to...

In showing people the difference, inoculation theory teaches them to be on the lookout for misinformation and manipulation even, or especially, when they least expect it. The core difference between Prebunking and Debunking is that while the former is preventative and seeks to provide a broad-spectrum cover against misinformation, the latter is reactive and focuses on specific instances of misinformation. While Debunking is closely tied to fact-checking, Prebunking is tied to a wider range of specific interventions, some of which increase motivation to be vigilant against misinformation and others increase the ability to engage... There is much to be said in favour of the Prebunking approach because these interventions build the capacity to identify misinformation and recognise red flags However, their success in practice may vary. It might be difficult to scale up Prebunking efforts and ensure their reach to a larger audience. Sustainability is critical in ensuring that Prebunking measures maintain their impact over time.

Continuous reinforcement and reminders may be required to ensure that individuals retain the skills and information they gained from the Prebunking training activities. Misinformation tactics and strategies are always evolving, so it is critical that Prebunking interventions are also flexible and agile and respond promptly to developing challenges. This may be easier said than done, but with new misinformation and cyber threats developing frequently, it is a challenge that has to be addressed for Prebunking to be a successful long-term solution. Subtitle: How Groups and their Stories Construct and Deconstruct Propaganda in the Digital Age by Diana Daly; Kainan Jarrette; and Nina Kotova Coronavirus, ‘Plandemic’ and the seven traits of conspiratorial thinking (Cook et al, 2020)

It’s not just a social media problem – how search engines spread misinformation (Shah, 2021) Misinformation lends itself to social contagion – here’s how to recognize and combat it (Lahiri, 2025) As diverse as disinformation strategies are, so are the methods to counter them. However, a look across the world reveals: In actual practice, one can hardly talk about a variety of methods. This needs to change. 2016.

Shortly before the U.S. presidential elections. Donald Trump is a few months away from becoming U.S. President. Far away from that, in the small town of Veles in North Macedonia, some teenagers experiment with websites, filling them with random headlines copied from major media outlets, and realise: The articles are generating... And quite a lot of them.

The model catches on. The websites become more numerous and professional. Some now appear to resemble legitimate news outlets. Five to ten articles per website are published every day, and although most of the pro-Trump articles make little sense or contain no truth, many of them spread like wildfire. From the middle of nowhere in Europe, public opinion in the U.S. is getting influenced, and some of these teenagers in the economically-struggling North Macedonia suddenly earn money: Between August and November 2016, over 16,000 USD through Google AdSense payouts.

It is only when The Guardian and Buzzfeed publish investigations revealing that at least 100 websites registered in the small town in North Macedonia are churning out disinformation about the U.S. elections, that Google demonetises the websites. The advertising revenue dries up, and the operators lose interest. Anyone who thinks of Russia, China, or Iran when it comes to disinformation campaigns will be surprised by the monetary motives of the Veles example, as the motives for creating and spreading disinformation vary... Whether targeted political influence or purely economic interest, countermeasures must consider the mechanisms and context of specific disinformation efforts to be effective. The toolbox of countermeasures to mitigate disinformation is versatile.

What is striking, however, is that most methods only address disinformation when it is already out and difficult to rein in, including fact-checking or debunking. Prebunking, on the other hand, attempts to prepare people for disinformation or specific misleading narratives before they even encounter them. The goal is to build resilience through sensitisation, thereby undermining the impact of disinformation. How such prevention against disinformation can work technically is demonstrated by Google subsidiary Jigsaw with its video campaigns: Video snippets that address specific disinformation and warn against it are played as so-called pre-rolls before... The problem: Prebunking is labour-intensive, must be tailored to specific topics of disinformation, and its effectiveness is limited. According to one study, the proportion of people who could recognise manipulative content after watching a prebunked video increased by an average of 5 percentage points.

Debunking And Prebunking An Overview Immersive Truth

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