Reducing belief in conspiracy theories as they unfold using large language models
The emergence of conspiracy theories in the wake of major events is a significant societal challenge. Here we test whether conversational dialogues with a large language model (LLM) can reduce belief in immediately unfolding conspiracies. In experiments conducted in the days following the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump and the September 2025 assassination of Charlie Kirk, U.S. adults (Experiment 1: N = 472; Experiment 2: N = 1035) holding conspiratorial views about the crisis event engaged in a multi-turn conversation with an LLM prompted to reduce their conspiracy belief. Compared to control participants who either discussed an irrelevant topic with an LLM or viewed a st...
| Authors | Thomas H. Costello, Nathaniel Rabb, Michael Nicholas Stagnaro et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.HC |
| Published | 6 August 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 6 August 2026 |
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