Psychological inoculation protects young women in South Africa against HIV prevention misinformation: Evidence from a randomised controlled trial

Psychological inoculation (“prebunking”) in a randomized trial among 2,163 South African women aged 18–29 increased HIV vaccine intentions by 0.92 points post-exposure.

• Why it matters: HIV-related misinformation can reduce confidence and willingness to use prevention technologies, but evidence for prebunking in sub-Saharan Africa and among young women is limited.
• What they did: Participants viewed two short TikTok-style inoculation videos addressing HIV vaccine myths or attention-matched nutrition/diabetes controls, then saw multiple false social-media claims; effects were estimated with linear regression.
• The result: Vaccine intentions rose in the intervention group (+0.92; 95% CI 0.78–1.06; p<0.01) and persisted at three-week follow-up (+0.97; 95% CI 0.78–1.17; p<0.01), alongside reduced credibility, emotional distress, and sharing intentions across false claims.