By the time a fact-check fires, the falsehood has already spread. Pre-bunking — psychological inoculation — exposes people to weakened versions of manipulation tactics before they encounter real misinformation.
Studies by Roozenbeek & van der Linden show short interventions (~5-minute videos) confer weeks of resistance across topics including COVID-19, climate denial, and political manipulation.
In this sim: try setting spread rate to 20% and fact-check strength to 0 — watch the cascade complete. Now reset, raise pre-inoculated % to 35%, and watch the cascade stall. Same disease; very different outcome.