Half#Truths Game: The Prebunking Method in Combating Disinformation in the Brazilian Context
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62758/re.302Keywords:
Disinformation, Prebunking Method, Psychological Inoculation Theory, Serious Games, Far-RightAbstract
Disinformation poses a threat to societies due to its potential to distort people’s understanding and harm them in decision-making processes that affect public health, attitudes toward science, and electoral outcomes. In light of these risks, over the past decade, governments, academia, and civil society have created mechanisms to combat so-called “fake news.” However, while research in Information Science has focused largely on conceptual definitions of the phenomenon, there remains a lack of studies addressing the cognitive aspects related to disinformation. This article explores that gap by applying a preventive intervention against online disinformation based on the prebunking method (literally, “pre-debunking”). This approach consists of a set of procedures grounded in Inoculation Theory, which have proven effective in building cognitive resilience against deceptive narratives commonly found on social media. The aim of this study is to share the findings of a research project centered on a serious game developed within this framework and applied to the Brazilian political context. To examine the tool’s effectiveness in training social media users to recognize disinformation and radical discourses associated with the far-right segment of the political spectrum, the methodology followed several steps: (1) identifying false content disseminated on social media, based on messages debunked by the fact-checking agency Lupa during the four years of Bolsonaro’s government (2018–2022); (2) organizing this material into categories defined as polarization; false identity; emotion, defamation, and conspiracy; (3) designing the serious game; and (4) collecting and interpreting data from volunteers (N=55) using descriptive statistics (paired t-test). The development of the serious game was guided by the Serious Game Design Assessment Framework (SGDA), which supports the design of serious games according to their purpose. Based on the analyzed data, this investigation statistically demonstrated that, after playing the game, participants reduced their degree of vulnerability to the disinformation strategies addressed in the developed tool. In line with previous studies, it is concluded that games based on preventive interventions are effective in reducing vulnerability to disinformation.
Keywords: Disinformation; Prebunking Method; Psychological Inoculation Theory; Serious Games; Far- Right.
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