The Landscape of User-centered Misinformation Interventions -- A Systematic Literature Review

TL;DR

This paper systematically maps the landscape of user-centered misinformation interventions through a PRISMA-guided review of 163 studies (encompassing 228 interventions) across multiple disciplines. It introduces a taxonomy with nine intervention designs and three dimensions (design, user interaction, timing), and analyzes transparency and nudging as prevalent themes. The findings reveal a dominance of correction/debunking approaches, a predominance of passive over active user interactions, and interventions largely deployed during exposure, with platform and format diversity and generally small but meaningful effects. The work identifies gaps such as limited coverage of emergent platforms and vulnerable user groups, and outlines future directions that emphasize cross-platform transfer, human-AI collaboration, explainable detection feedback, and media-literacy enhancement without overexposure to misinformation.

Abstract

Misinformation is one of the key challenges facing society today. User-centered misinformation interventions as digital countermeasures that exert a direct influence on users represent a promising means to deal with the large amounts of information available. While an extensive body of research on this topic exists, researchers are confronted with a diverse research landscape spanning multiple disciplines. This review systematizes the landscape of user-centered misinformation interventions to facilitate knowledge transfer, identify trends, and enable informed decision-making. Over 5,700 scholarly publications were screened and a systematic literature review (N=163) was conducted. A taxonomy was derived regarding intervention design (e.g., (binary) label), user interaction (active or passive), and timing (e.g., post exposure to misinformation). We provide a structured overview of approaches across multiple disciplines, and derive six overarching challenges for future research.

Figures (9)

• Figure 1: PRISMA Diagram demonstrating our data flow within the systematic literature review (created with the template from page_prisma_2021)
• Figure 2: Sample sizes (log) of the individual studies broken down by study type including the median (Mdn). Note that a publication often contains multiple user studies.
• Figure 3: Number of papers published according to their addressed platform.
• Figure 4: A taxonomy for user-centered misinformation interventions.
• Figure 5: Number of interventions addressing common intervention designs while differentiating between approaches that use a single intervention design versus multiple types in combination. Instances <4 were excluded. A more detailed breakdown of the category 'other' can be found in Section \ref{['sec:interventiontype']}.