TY - JOUR
T1 - The psychological drivers of misinformation belief and its resistance to correction
AU - Ecker, Ullrich K.H.
AU - Lewandowsky, Stephan
AU - Cook, John
AU - Schmid, Philipp
AU - Fazio, Lisa K.
AU - Brashier, Nadia
AU - Kendeou, Panayiota
AU - Vraga, Emily K.
AU - Amazeen, Michelle A.
N1 - Funding Information:
U.K.H.E. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council (Future Fellowship FT190100708). S.L. acknowledges support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Volkswagen Foundation (large grant ‘Reclaiming individual autonomy and democratic discourse online’) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through a Knowledge Exchange Fellowship. S.L. and P.S. acknowledge support from the European Commission (Horizon 2020 grant agreement No. 964728 JITSUVAX).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Springer Nature America, Inc.
PY - 2022/1/12
Y1 - 2022/1/12
N2 - Misinformation has been identified as a major contributor to various contentious contemporary events ranging from elections and referenda to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only can belief in misinformation lead to poor judgements and decision-making, it also exerts a lingering influence on people’s reasoning after it has been corrected — an effect known as the continued influence effect. In this Review, we describe the cognitive, social and affective factors that lead people to form or endorse misinformed views, and the psychological barriers to knowledge revision after misinformation has been corrected, including theories of continued influence. We discuss the effectiveness of both pre-emptive (‘prebunking’) and reactive (‘debunking’) interventions to reduce the effects of misinformation, as well as implications for information consumers and practitioners in various areas including journalism, public health, policymaking and education.
AB - Misinformation has been identified as a major contributor to various contentious contemporary events ranging from elections and referenda to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only can belief in misinformation lead to poor judgements and decision-making, it also exerts a lingering influence on people’s reasoning after it has been corrected — an effect known as the continued influence effect. In this Review, we describe the cognitive, social and affective factors that lead people to form or endorse misinformed views, and the psychological barriers to knowledge revision after misinformation has been corrected, including theories of continued influence. We discuss the effectiveness of both pre-emptive (‘prebunking’) and reactive (‘debunking’) interventions to reduce the effects of misinformation, as well as implications for information consumers and practitioners in various areas including journalism, public health, policymaking and education.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128880552&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s44159-021-00006-y
DO - 10.1038/s44159-021-00006-y
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85128880552
SN - 2731-0574
VL - 1
SP - 13
EP - 29
JO - Nature Reviews Psychology
JF - Nature Reviews Psychology
IS - 1
ER -