Factors that lead to the continued influence effect of misinformation: how can we effectively encode corrections?

Poster Session C - Sunday, April 14, 2024, 5:00 – 7:00 pm EDT, Sheraton Hall ABC

Sean Guo¹, Danni Chen¹, Wanrou Hu², Xiaoqing Hu^1,3,4; ¹The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, ²University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China, ³The State Key Laboratory of Brian and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, ⁴HKU-Shenzhen Institute of Research and Innovation, Shenzhen, China

The continued influence effect (CIE) occurs when retracted information exerts an unwanted influence on decision making. The integration account proposes that ineffective integration of corrections during encoding leads to increased susceptibility to misinformation. However, the specific encoding processes underlying effective integration remain unclear. In our study, participants learned about an effect (e.g. fire) and its cause (e.g. arson), and encountered corrections or confirmations of the cause. They were then tested on the veracity of the causes across two days. We hypothesized that response time when retrieving the veracity of misinformation would reflect integration strength. Indeed, behavioral results showed that faster response times during veracity judgement on day 1 were associated with reduced CIE on day 2 (F(1,50) = 39.99, p < .001). Corrections elicited a larger frontal slow wave than confirmations (F(1,49) = 4.58, p = .037), suggesting that associative encoding played a larger role in the integration of correction and misinformation. Increased P300 amplitude when learning about the effect was associated with fast response times and reduced CIE (F(2,92) = 4.29, p = .017), highlighting the importance of detailed encoding of an event on effective misinformation correction. Results from the current study provide evidence that false tags are effortfully appended to misinformation through associative processing. Focusing on creating associative links between misinformation and its correction can be an effective way to combat the CIE.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Semantic