Displacing misinformation about events: an experimental test of causal corrections
Displacing misinformation about events: an experimental test of causal corrections
Misinformation can be very difficult to correct and may have lasting effects even after it is discredited. One reason for this persistence is the manner in which people make causal inferences based on available information about a given event or outcome. As a result, false information may continue to influence beliefs and attitudes even after being debunked if it is not replaced by an alternate causal explanation. We test this hypothesis using an experimental paradigm adapted from the psychology literature on the continued influence effect and find that a causal explanation for an unexplained event is significantly more effective than a denial even when the denial is backed by unusually strong evidence. This result has significant implications for how to most effectively counter misinformation about controversial political events and outcomes.
81-93
Nyhan, Brendan
76e1ec80-0af5-432d-9dd6-f7e8237191e4
Reifler, Jason
426301a1-f90b-470d-a076-04a9d716c491
1 April 2015
Nyhan, Brendan
76e1ec80-0af5-432d-9dd6-f7e8237191e4
Reifler, Jason
426301a1-f90b-470d-a076-04a9d716c491
Nyhan, Brendan and Reifler, Jason
(2015)
Displacing misinformation about events: an experimental test of causal corrections.
Journal of Experimental Political Science, 2 (1), .
(doi:10.1017/XPS.2014.22).
Abstract
Misinformation can be very difficult to correct and may have lasting effects even after it is discredited. One reason for this persistence is the manner in which people make causal inferences based on available information about a given event or outcome. As a result, false information may continue to influence beliefs and attitudes even after being debunked if it is not replaced by an alternate causal explanation. We test this hypothesis using an experimental paradigm adapted from the psychology literature on the continued influence effect and find that a causal explanation for an unexplained event is significantly more effective than a denial even when the denial is backed by unusually strong evidence. This result has significant implications for how to most effectively counter misinformation about controversial political events and outcomes.
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Published date: 1 April 2015
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Local EPrints ID: 497040
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/497040
ISSN: 2052-2630
PURE UUID: 12380d6b-aa9f-47e4-b2e7-d2cbf01a776e
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Date deposited: 10 Jan 2025 17:46
Last modified: 21 Jan 2025 03:15
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Author:
Brendan Nyhan
Author:
Jason Reifler
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