Durably Reducing Conspiracy Beliefs Through Dialogues with AI

Abstract

Conspiracy theory beliefs are notoriously persistent. Influential hypotheses propose that they fulfill important psychological needs, thus resisting counterevidence. Yet previous failures in correcting conspiracy beliefs may be due to counterevidence being insufficiently compelling and tailored. To evaluate this possibility, we leveraged developments in generative artificial intelligence and engaged 2190 conspiracy believers in personalized evidence-based dialogues with GPT-4 Turbo. The intervention reduced conspiracy belief by ~20%. The effect remained 2 months later, generalized across a wide range of conspiracy theories, and occurred even among participants with deeply entrenched beliefs. Although the dialogues focused on a single conspiracy, they nonetheless diminished belief in unrelated conspiracies and shifted conspiracy-related behavioral intentions. These findings suggest that many conspiracy theory believers can revise their views if presented with sufficiently compelling evidence.

The authors' own abstract, copied from pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

How to cite it

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Costello, T. H., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2024). Durably Reducing Conspiracy Beliefs Through Dialogues with AI. Science (peer-reviewed; expression of concern issued 2026). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq1814

Costello, Thomas H., et al. "Durably Reducing Conspiracy Beliefs Through Dialogues with AI." Science (peer-reviewed; expression of concern issued 2026), 2024, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq1814.

@article{costello2024durably,
  title = {Durably Reducing Conspiracy Beliefs Through Dialogues with AI},
  author = {Thomas H. Costello and Gordon Pennycook and David G. Rand},
  journal = {Science (peer-reviewed; expression of concern issued 2026)},
  year = {2024},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq1814},
}

What it is

Science study in which 2,190 conspiracy believers held personalized, evidence-based conversations with GPT-4 Turbo; belief fell about 20% and the effect lasted two months. Science published an expression of concern about the paper on June 11, 2026.

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