Will Spacing Retractions Modulate the Continued Influence Effect?

Hailey A Arreola, Purdue University

Abstract

Globally, the misinformation crisis exposed the need for cognitive researchers to investigate interventions that will mitigate the influence of misinformation within memory. One proposed solution is a retraction, whereby misinformation is indicated to be inaccurate. Previous studies have demonstrated that providing a retraction after misinformation may reduce references to misinformation. The continued reliance on misinformation even after it has been corrected is known as the continued influence effect (CIE). It is unclear whether repeated retractions and the spacing of repeated retractions can reduce the CIE. In the present study, two experiments were conducted to investigate whether spacing repeated retractions among news messages would be more effective at reducing the CIE compared to massing retractions. Both experiments exposed participants to a news story containing misinformation. Each experiment included four retraction conditions: no retraction, a single retraction, or repeated retractions that were spaced or massed. In Experiment 1, a single retraction reduced reliance on misinformation, but we did not observe an additional benefit of repeated retractions when there were two retractions. In Experiment 2, we provided participants with three repeated retractions. Using this stronger manipulation, repeated retractions reduced references to misinformation compared to a single retraction, but there was no benefit of spacing them out. Collectively, our results suggest that repeating corrective messages can help reduce references to misinformation, with no supporting evidence that it matters how the repetitions are organized.

Degree

M.Sc.

Advisors

Schneider, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Reading instruction

COinS