# Effective Yet Ephemeral Propaganda Defense: There Needs to Be More than One-Shot Inoculation to Enhance Critical Thinking

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.16497 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16497/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 9 of its 41 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Mar 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [MiniCheck: Efficient Fact-Checking of LLMs on Grounding Documents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.10774/) (2024)
- [Towards LLM-based Fact Verification on News Claims with a Hierarchical Step-by-Step Prompting Method](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.00305/) (2023)
- [SemEval-2020 Task 11: Detection of Propaganda Techniques in News Articles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.02696/) (2020)
- [The Perils & Promises of Fact-checking with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.13549/) (2023)
- [Prta: A System to Support the Analysis of Propaganda Techniques in the News](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.05854/) (2020)
- [Overview of the WANLP 2022 Shared Task on Propaganda Detection in Arabic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.10057/) (2022)
- [Think Fast, Think Slow, Think Critical: Designing an Automated Propaganda Detection Tool](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.19135/) (2024)
- [Large Language Models for Propaganda Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06422/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Biased by Design: Leveraging AI Biases to Enhance Critical Thinking of News Readers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14522/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In today's media landscape, propaganda distribution has a significant impact on society. It sows confusion, undermines democratic processes, and leads to increasingly difficult decision-making for news readers. We investigate the lasting effect on critical thinking and propaganda awareness on them when using a propaganda detection and contextualization tool. Building on inoculation theory, which suggests that preemptively exposing individuals to weakened forms of propaganda can improve their resilience against it, we integrate Kahneman's dual-system theory to measure the tools' impact on critical thinking. Through a two-phase online experiment, we measure the effect of several inoculation doses. Our findings show that while the tool increases critical thinking during its use, this increase vanishes without access to the tool. This indicates a single use of the tool does not create a lasting impact. We discuss the implications and propose possible approaches to improve the resilience against propaganda in the long-term.