Keywords
conspiracy, game, mobile, intervention, thinking

Technologies
flutter, swift, drift, mobile phone

Conspiracy theories are associated with harmful behavioural and social outcomes, yet research into effective interventions remains limited. Most existing approaches are administered in single sessions and measure global scepticism rather than genuine discernment — the ability to distinguish plausible from implausible conspiratorial claims. The present study examines whether a repeated, game-based critical thinking (CT) training intervention can improve conspiracy reasoning discernment relative to an untrained control group. Participants played a purpose-built mobile game across seven consecutive daily sessions, evaluating fictional conspiracy scenarios and selecting the most plausible explanation from three options. CT was assessed using the Critical Thinking About Conspiracies Test (CTAC; O'Mahony et al., 2025), a validated instrument assessing both plausible and implausible conspiracy appraisal. It is hypothesised that participants who completed game-based training will demonstrate significantly higher CTAC scores than the control group. Findings will have implications for scalable, theory-driven interventions targeting conspiracy reasoning.