To combat this effect, researchers have targeted both encoding and retrieval processes. A recent study found that nudging people to think about accuracy before sharing misinformation significantly improves people’s discernment of whether it is true. What to read next: “Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence” by John Cook, Stephan Lewandowsky, and Ullrich K.H. Immediately after the contagion phase, participants completed a final 12‐minute free recall test identical to the initial test procedure (six scenes, 2 minutes per scene). Social media users also regularly encounter harmful misinformation about vaccines and virus outbreaks. Correct attributions for contagion items (see Table 3, ‘Other’ row) were subject to the same analysis. The two experiments presented in this study investigate the impact of memory training on the misinformation effect. In contrast, taking two initial tests did not increase the PET pattern on either memory test beyond the benefits obtained from taking one initial test. Memory conformity: Can eyewitnesses influence each other's memories for an event? The misinformation effect happens when a person's memory becomes less accurate due to information that happens after the event. Initial retrieval of an event can reduce people's susceptibility to misinformation. Although initial testing generally benefitted memory accuracy, we also found some potential costs of initial testing. Working off-campus? These findings also have the potential to contribute to guidelines for interviewing eyewitnesses, as well as for the interpretation of testimony in legal contexts. (2013), in contrast, the misinformation (contagion items) were always additive (i.e., not in the scenes) rather than contradictory (i.e., contradicting specific objects in the scenes; Frost, 2000; Nemeth & Belli, 2006). Like a vaccine, it works by exposing people to examples of misinformation, or misinformation techniques, to help them recognize and reject them in the future. Memory at the Sharp End: The Costs of Remembering With Others in Forensic Contexts. In the misinformation paradigm, participants are exposed to misleading details about a previous event. Figure 2 depicts the design. The logic was that because testing enhances memory retention of the original event (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006a), taking a By manipulating the number of exposures to suggested details, the social contagion paradigm provides a simple means of contrasting the effects of single versus repeated exposures on suggestibility. In our work using the social‐contagion‐of‐memory paradigm (present study; Huff et al., 2013), initial testing has typically had protective effects on memory, rather than increasing the misinformation effect. Pausing to consider why a headline is true or false can help reduce the sharing of false news, Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, “Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence”, by John Cook, Stephan Lewandowsky, and Ullrich K.H. Lisa Fazio, a researcher based at Vanderbilt University, has found that if you create friction in the act of sharing, such as by asking people to explain why they think a headline is true before they share it, they’re less likely to spread misinformation. Each of six sheets listed the scene name at the top, and participants had 2 minutes to recall its objects. More research is needed to understand what techniques can cultivate emotional skepticism, and how this can slow down the sharing of misinformation. Learn more. Accordingly, we propose that the presence of a message which emphasizes the negative effects of health misinformation dissemination and/or the accountability for health misinformation dissemination will reduce users' dissemination of the misinformation. We constructed digital color images depicting six household scenes (toolbox, bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, closet, and desk; after Huff et al., 2013; Meade & Roediger, 2002; see Figure 1 for an example). Consistent with these beneficial effects of testing, some studies have found that initial testing reduces the misinformation effect. Five colleagues handwrote one recall test for each of the six scenes. Whether initial testing yields a RES pattern or PET pattern may thus be contingent, in part, on how the initial test shapes the learning of subsequent misinformation (Gordon, Thomas, & Bulevich, 2015). Either immediately or following a 48‐hour delay, they then completed the social contagion phase in which they reviewed a set of recall tests ostensibly completed by other participants to expose them to non‐presented contagion items. In sum, participants viewed six slides depicting household scenes and then completed zero, one, or two initial free recall tests. Misinformation and its Correction: Cognitive Mechanisms and Recommendations for Mass Communication”, by Briony Swire and Ullrich K.H. ” by Cameron Martel, George Pennycook, and David G. Rand, (preprint) in 2019. Groups of up to six participants were tested. Further, misinformation encountered socially is likely a common source in eyewitness events (Paterson & Kemp, 2006)—perhaps more so than exposure to detailed experimenter‐prepared narratives generally used in misinformation paradigms. Immediate interviewing increases children's suggestibility in the short term, but not in the long term. By extension, eyewitnesses exposed to misleading details are also likely to unwittingly incorporate misinformation into their testimony. What to read next: “Fake news, fast and slow: Deliberation reduces belief in false (but not true) news headlines” by Bence Bago, David G. Rand and George Pennycook, (preprint) in 2019. Regardless, these ‘costs’ of initial testing are a reminder of the importance of examining how manipulations influence both false and correct memory in false memory paradigms (e.g., Gunter, Ivanko, & Bodner, 2005; Huff et al., 2015). and you may need to create a new Wiley Online Library account. “Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: Experimental evidence for a scalable accuracy nudge intervention”. In order to fight climate change misinformation, a better educational system should be implemented. In the third part of this series on the psychology of misinformation, we cover the psychological concepts that are relevant to the prevention of misinformation. 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