Facts and Fiction in the Internet Age: A trial on online myths and education about important social issues.

Procedure: 1. Participants will be recruited from paper flyers, social media community groups and community chat groups that are specific to, or have majority membership of, Arabic-Australians. The flyers and posts will provide a link and/or QR code to the REDCap landing page of the baseline survey. The landing page will provide information about the project, a downloadable participant information sheet, and consent form. 2. Consenting participants will complete screening questions (1-2 minutes) and, if they are eligible, the baseline survey (appox 10 minutes). On completion of the baseline survey, participants will be automatically randomly allocated to the intervention or control condition. This will appear relatively seamless to participants as links and randomisation will be embedded in the survey. 3. Participants allocated to the intervention condition by the algorithm upon completion of the baseline survey will be taken to the Cranky Uncle Vaccine – Arabic game (Arabic language). Participants will be required to complete at least eight of the ten misinformation tricks (also 'game levels'; approximately 20-40 minutes of play). After eight tricks are completed, a pop-up will inform the player of their progress and give the option to complete all ten tricks or proceed to the post-intervention survey. If the player chooses to continue the game, the post-intervention survey will begin immediately after the ten tricks of the game are completed. The tricks are not randomised. It is possible for a participant to stop playing the game before level 8 and return to it later. This will not disqualify them from the trial. Deidentified meta data will provide insights into game completion rates and times. 4. Participants allocated to the control condition by the algorithm upon completion of the baseline survey will be taken to a YouTube video that is embedded within the Cranky Uncle Vaccine – Arabic game’s programming architecture. This will be an English-language with Arabic subtitles documentary about the effects of climate change, of approximately 12 minutes duration. When the video finishes, the player will be instructed to click a button on screen that takes them to the post-intervention survey. 5. The post-intervention survey has the same outcome measures as the baseline survey, wihout demographic questions. It takes approximately 8-10 minutes to complete. 6. A $15 electronic gift card will be emailed or texted (at the participant's discretion) to the participant to reimburse them for their time. 7. Three weeks after completion of the post-trial survey, an email and/or text (mode is participant's choice) will be sent to participants via REDCap inviting them to the follow-up survey. Participants will click the link to complete the survey. 8. The follow-up survey includes the same outcome measures as surveys 1 and 2, as well as 2 satisfaction questions about their 'activity'. 9. An electronic gift card will be emailed or texted to the participant upon completion of the follow-up survey to reimburse participants for their time. This will mark the end of their participation in the trial. Intervention description: The Cranky Uncle Vaccine – Arabic game is available through any web browser via URL which will be automatically linked from the REDCap baseline survey following randomisation. The game begins with several onboarding screens, where the player is introduced to the characters as they learn how to play the game. The main characters are Cranky Uncle and the Health Worker. Cranky Uncle is an older man who believes conspiracy theories and spreads misinformation about vaccines by applying ten different psychological techniques, which he calls “tricks”. These include tricks like “False cause”, where he implies that two things that occur close in time must be related, and “Fake experts”, where he suggests that people with expertise in one area must be reliable experts in another unrelated field. The Health Worker responds to Cranky Uncle, sharing vaccine information and helping explain his tricks to the player. Several other characters also appear throughout the game to share vaccine facts or listen to Cranky Uncle’s tricks. Each screen is a static graphic, like a comic book, with a speech bubble of one to two sentences of text written in Modern Standard Arabic. Participants click “Next” after they read each screen to move ahead in the game. After completing the onboarding section, participants enter the first level of the game, where they learn the first trick. Each trick level includes a definition and example of the trick, as well as two quizzes to test the player’s understanding of the concept. The quizzes are multiple choice or true/false. When the player gets a quiz answer correct, they earn “Cranky Points” and make Cranky Uncle angrier because they are learning to see through his misinformation. When they get an answer wrong, they lose points and return to the quiz question to try again. Players progress through all the trick levels and earn points by completing quizzes throughout the game. There are ten levels in the game, each comprising a misinformation trick. Participants will be required to complete at least eight of the ten misinformation tricks (approximately 20-40 minutes of play). After eight tricks are completed, a pop-up will inform the player of their progress and give the option to complete all ten tricks or proceed to the post-intervention survey. If the player chooses to continue the game, the post-intervention survey will begin immediately after the ten tricks of the game are completed. The game’s server retains no identifying player data.