Abstract

Democratic backsliding in contemporary democracies has increasingly unfolded through micro-level processes, including far-right voting, declining trust in democratic institutions, and rising outgroup hostility. While existing research has made substantial progress in diagnosing these dynamics, robust, theory-driven evidence on which interventions can effectively strengthen democratic resilience is still lacking. This project addresses this gap by introducing AI-mediated interactive Holocaust survivor testimonies as a novel and scalable democratic resilience intervention. The project theorises that interactive encounters with Holocaust survivors foster perspective-taking, humanisation, and a re-evaluation of the risks associated with authoritarianism. By transforming abstract historical knowledge into emotionally engaging, dialogical experiences, AI-mediated testimonies are expected to reduce outgroup hostility, increase trust in democratic institutions, and weaken electoral support for far-right parties. Methodologically, the project combines cutting-edge AI technology with a multi-stage research design that integrates large-scale survey experiments with focus groups, as well as field experiments in schools and on social media platforms. In doing so, the project directly advances SCRIPTS’ second-phase agenda by moving from diagnosing democratic erosion to experimentally testing scalable strategies for countering it from within. It contributes both theoretical innovation and actionable evidence on how digital memory interventions can strengthen democratic resilience in contemporary democracies.