Educating for the Future: Enhancing Critical Thinking and Misinformation Resilience Through Inoculation Theory in Higher Education

Misinformation is a critical global challenge with significant societal implications, including compromised decisionmaking and democratic processes. Higher education plays a vital role in equipping students with critical thinking skills to navigate misinformation effectively. This study investigates the application of inoculation theory—a psychological framework that builds resistance to persuasion through exposure to weakened doses of misinformation and its manipulative techniques—in a higher education context. A one-week intervention was integrated into a competency-based general education course, involving 135 second-year college students from diverse disciplines. A multitechnique approach combining passive and active strategies was employed, including lectures, case studies, video presentations, interactive games, and expert-led discussions. Pre- and post-intervention assessments measured the students' ability to identify misinformation, gauge confidence levels, and evaluate their willingness to share misleading content. Using confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance frameworks, we validated the construct of misinformation identification as a latent trait. The results revealed a statistically significant improvement in students' ability to discern manipulative content, confirming the effectiveness of the inoculation-based intervention. The findings underscore the potential of multifaceted inoculation strategies to enhance critical thinking and misinformation resilience, providing a model for broader applications in educational settings. This work advances both the theoretical understanding of inoculation theory and its practical implementation in fostering informed decision-making and resilience against misinformation in a digitally complex era.