The effects of subtle misinformation in news headlines

This study examines how misleading headlines, which emphasize secondary content rather than the main point of an article, impact readers’ memory, reasoning, and impressions. In two experiments, it demonstrates that misleading headlines affect how readers remember factual information, interpret news, and form impressions of people, even when the person in the headline isn’t the one shown in images. The findings suggest that headlines can bias readers’ information processing and make it difficult to update initial misconceptions, with practical implications for media literacy and news consumption.