4.1. Effectiveness of the Inoculation Intervention
confusion
In both Studies 1 and 2, broad-spectrum inoculation was found to be effective in enhancing the ability to recognize misinformation, consistent with prior research on the inoculation theory [The evaluation index of the intervention’s effectiveness, the ability to recognize misinformation, and the persuasive intent of misinformation measured the reliability and reposting intention of both factual news and misinformation. Based on this, we inferred that the intervention did not increase the level of unreliable reposting for all types of information but rather enhanced the reliability with facts and reduced reliability with misinformation. To further clarify the intervention efficacy target, future research could attempt to dichotomize yes and no judgments for materials containing misinformation and facts and use the correctness of the judgments as a test for the intervention efficacy.However, the duration of the effects of the intervention differed between Studies 1 and 2. In Study 1, the effect was maintained for a longer period (vs. Study 2), despite it comprising only a brief priming session; in Study 2, the effect lasted for a shorter period, and this was despite the longer, five-day intervention compared with that in Study 1. This may be related to the process of mastering knowledge, which the saying “The more you learn, the harder it gets” efficiently describes. That is, although the period for learning the knowledge of misinformation in Study 2 was longer than that in Study 1, the relatively deeper learning process in Study 2 is also more likely to have caused confusion among participants.On the one hand, researchers have shown that the repeated activation of memory makes it more likely for people to produce false memories and requires sufficient reconsolidation to ensure correct recall [