Identity is key, but Inoculation helps – how to empower Germans of Russian descent against pro-Kremlin disinformation

Abstract

The Russian war against Ukraine is accompanied by a comprehensive global disinformation campaign that challenges the legitimacy of international support for Ukraine and questions Russia's responsibility for initiating the war. Inoculation has been proven a powerful tool against many forms of disinformation, however, its effectiveness can be impaired by factors such as social identity and media exposure. With a preregistered experimental study examining two samples from Germany, one having a Russian migration background (N = 303), the other not (N = 294) we tested the power of inoculation against typical pro-Russian disinformation narratives pertaining to the war against Ukraine. First, we found that having a Russian identity and being exposed to Russian media is positively correlated with a heightened susceptibility to disinformation. Second, we could demonstrate that inoculation improves participants’ ability to recognize disinformation correctly and perceive it as less credible, heightens perceptions of Russia’s responsibility for the war and strengthens solidarity with Ukraine. Third, inoculation effects on disinformation susceptibility were not significantly impaired by identity. We call for more research efforts to better understand how identity-related motivations and media effects can be addressed by interventions against disinformation and political propaganda.