Table 4 Strategies to address conspiracy beliefs

Russell et al., 2011, USA [2]

Community engagement, trust-building, education campaigns

Involves communities in research to address mistrust and improve health literacy

Proposed but not directly tested

Indirect evidence supports engagement as a potential intervention strategy

Ford et al., 2013, USA [1]

Addressing misconceptions, improving trust in government

Reduces psychological barriers to healthcare engagement

Not explicitly tested

Alternative strategies for engaging distrustful individuals

Hogg et al., 2017, South Africa [21]

Culturally relevant health education

Increases understanding of HIV origins among adolescents

Not explicitly measured

Highlights the need for culturally tailored approaches

Lahrach & Furnham, 2017, UK [24]

Tailored communication for skeptical patients

Improves patient satisfaction and adherence to medical advice

Hypothesized but not directly evaluated

Suggests a need for healthcare providers to better understand patient beliefs

Sommariva et al., 2018, USA [14]

Early exposure to accurate information, fact-checking, risk communication

Limits misinformation spread and enhances message accuracy

WHO interventions and Facebook’s algorithm adjustments reduced misinformation

WHO’s “Dispelling Rumors Around Zika” and Facebook’s fact-checking strategies

Featherstone & Zhang, 2020, USA [3]

Two-sided refutational messaging

Refutes false claims, reducing anger and increasing vaccine acceptance

Demonstrated improved pro-vaccine attitudes

Supported by controlled trials

Chen et al., 2020, Ecuador [6]

Web-based psychiatric screening, targeted health messaging

Identifies individuals with high conspiracy beliefs and provides corrective information

Stated as critical but not directly measured

Supports the role of social media in combating misinformation

Havey, 2020, USA [13]

Suspending misinformation accounts, educating on source credibility

Limits misinformation amplification and improves information discernment

Not explicitly reported

Highlights inconsistencies in social media misinformation policies

Agley et al., 2021, USA [22]

Infographics on scientific processes

Enhances trust in science, reducing misinformation beliefs

Small but statistically significant improvement

Randomized controlled trial confirms effectiveness

Loomba et al., 2021, UK & USA [4]

Altruistic vaccination messaging, fact-checking misinformation

Increases vaccine uptake by emphasizing community protection

Higher vaccination intent in groups exposed to altruistic messaging

Survey results show factual exposure increases vaccine willingness

Natoli & Marques, 2021, Australia [11]

Evidence-based counter-narratives

Decreases belief in conspiracy theories and improves trust in health authorities

Effective in reducing conspiracy beliefs compared to control groups

Highlights the role of counter-narratives.

Juanchich et al., 2021, UK [12]

Analytical thinking promotion, transparent communication

Encourages critical thinking

Analytical thinking lowered misinformation acceptance

Experimental results validate effectiveness

Dȩbski et al., 2022, Poland [7]

WHO-led myth debunking, fact dissemination

Strengthens trust in health information, reduces false beliefs

Promotes mental health and compliance with health measures

WHO’s COVID-19 myth-busting strategies cited

McCarthy et al., 2022, Australia [5]

Trust-building in government, community engagement, misinformation countering

Enhances institutional trust and reduces misinformation spread

Higher trust linked to vaccine acceptance and lower conspiracy endorsement

Suggested as a key strategy for reducing vaccine hesitancy

Jiang et al., 2022, Hong Kong [15]

Inoculation messaging (two-sided refutation)

Builds resistance to rumors, improving vaccine attitudes

More effective than supportive messaging

Experimental evidence supports inoculation messaging

Swire-Thompson et al., 2023, USA [26]

Repetition of corrections, deep encoding strategies

Improves memory retention and reduces belief regression

Correction memory accounts for 66% of belief regression variance

Repetition and active engagement enhance correction

Lin et al., 2023, multi-national (66 countries) [16]

Tailored public health campaigns, risk communication

Strengthens public trust and mitigates misinformation through targeted messaging

Emphasized as necessary but not directly tested

Evidence shows high conspiracy belief correlates with lower trust in health guidelines

Nefes et al., 2023, Spain [8]

Trust-building in science, targeted messaging to extreme-right groups

Increases trust in health authorities and reduces ideological misinformation

Transparency and scientific literacy programs lowered skepticism

Higher trust correlated with lower conspiracy belief scores

Walter et al., 2023, USA [25]

Monitoring extremist forums

Identifies and tracks misinformation narratives

Suggested for public health and law enforcement use

Provides insights into misinformation trends and behaviors

Banas et al., 2024, USA [23]

Fact-based and logic-based inoculation treatments

Equips individuals to resist anti-vaccine misinformation

Both methods effectively counter conspiracy theories

Fact-based refutation addresses misinformation, logic-based inoculation corrects reasoning errors

Kapoor et al., 2024, India [10]

Strengthening critical thinking, institutional trust

Reduces misinformation susceptibility, promoting evidence-based health practices

Theoretical framework, requires further empirical research

Suggested as a promising intervention strategy

Lyons et al., 2024, USA [17]

Media literacy training (News Tips), health misinformation intervention (BOAST)

Encourages skepticism toward misleading headlines, improving critical news evaluation

Reduced intent to share false health news

BOAST intervention had mixed effects, indicating need for refinement

Carletto et al., 2024, USA [9]

Promoting reliance on credible sources

Strengthens trust in healthcare and reduces misinformation spread

Participants relying on medical professionals were 28% less likely to believe conspiracy myths

Statistical analysis supports credibility-based interventions

Kroke & Ruthig, 2024, USA & Canada [27]

Vaccine education, addressing conspiracy fallacies

Reduces fear, enhances risk perception, counters misinformation

Most effective when introduced early

Supports transparency and proactive education strategies

Moran et al., 2024, USA [18]

Restricting misinformation-linked external features, FTC regulations on health ads

Limits financial incentives for misinformation

Not directly tested

Suggests stricter advertising guidelines and platform monitoring measures