The objective of WP1 is to develop the conceptualization of knowledge resilience and develop an empirically grounded operationalisation of resilient knowledge that distinguishes its three components attention, retention and application and makes each of these components observable.

Because attention, retention, and application are distinct components of knowledge resilience and distinct points of potential failure, WP1 develops measurement approaches that target each of them. This includes behavioural indicators of attention, recall measures at varying delays, and measures of whether specific factual content is applied in subsequent political judgments and when misinformation is encountered. WP1 establishes the measurement infrastructure on which the remaining work packages build.

WP1 aims to 1) develop instruments to measure knowledge resilience across its key components; 2) design experimental treatments featuring different types of factual evidence to be implemented in cross-national survey and laboratory experiments; and 3) create a codebook to code factual evidence types in media and social media comment content across Western countries.

WP2 tests the central prediction of the Psychological Alignment Model: that factual evidence aligned with psychological biases for vivid social information builds resilient knowledge more effectively than abstract and statistical evidence alone.
To test the Psychological Alignment Model WP2 develops and implements a multi-methods cross-national research design combining 1) cross-national randomized survey experiments in representative panel surveys to enable precise causal inference over time and to the mass public; 2) cross-national laboratory experiments providing real-time psychophysiological indicators to enhance measurement validity; and 3) cross-national computational analyses
of real-world media content and authentic user engagement to ensure ecological validity. 
 

WP3 investigates the psychological mechanisms linking the formal properties of evidence to resilient knowledge.

Prior research suggests that emotional arousal heightens attention and promotes deeper processing, which in turn enhances memory consolidation. WP3 tests whether arousal mediates the effect of psychologically aligned evidence across all three components of resilient knowledge, and establishes the conditions under which arousal supports rather than crowds out the processing of accompanying statistical evidence.

As part of WP3 the project will also explore additional psychological mechanisms linking the formal properties of evidence to knowledge resilience.
 

WP4 examines the distribution of effects across citizens and investigates possibilities for mitigating inequalities in knowledge resilience in the mass public.

The Psychological Alignment Model predicts that psychologically aligned evidence is most effective among citizens for whom abstract evidence is most demanding such as those with lower numeracy, political interest, education, and capacity for analytical thinking. The 

Psychological Alignment Model also predicts that psychologically aligned evidence will be most effective among those most resistant to established evidentiary forms, including citizens with low political trust and populist attitudes. 

WP4 tests these predictions and establishes whether aligned evidence can narrow existing knowledge inequalities.