A theoretical review of the misinformation effect: Predictions from an activation-based memory model
This article provides a comprehensive review of over 20 years of research on the acceptance of false information regarding recently experienced events, examining various theoretical perspectives that attempt to explain this phenomenon.…
Estimating the causal effects of media coverage on policy-specific knowledge
This article examines the role of mass media as a source of policy-specific knowledge in a democracy, highlighting past research’s design and methodological limitations that hinder causal inferences. By utilizing a novel…
Dissociation of processes in belief: Source recollection, statement familiarity, and the illusion of truth.
This article presents four experiments investigating the illusory-truth effect, where repetition affects how truthfully statements are perceived. It examines how statements paired with credible sources, whether true or false, influence ratings of…
Arousal increases social transmission of information
This article explores the dynamics of social transmission and the factors influencing why certain stories or information are shared more than others in various contexts. It critiques traditional theories that focus solely…
Astroturfing global warming: It isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence
This study investigates the phenomenon of astroturf organizations—corporate-sponsored groups that mimic grassroots movements to promote their interests, particularly in the context of global warming. Through an experiment, the research reveals that individuals…
Misinformation effects in eyewitness memory: The presence and absence of memory impairment as a function of warning and misinformation accessibility
This paper examines the impact of misleading postevent information on individuals’ memory recall of witnessed events through five experiments. Utilizing the modified opposition test to assess memory, the study finds that retrieval…
Correcting false information in memory: Manipulating the strength of misinformation encoding and its retraction
This study explores how the strength of misinformation encoding and subsequent corrections (retractions) influence the persistence of misinformation effects on memory and reasoning. Participants read an event report containing misinformation and a…
Explicit warnings reduce but do not eliminate the continued influence of misinformation
This study examines how the continued influence of misinformation persists even after it has been retracted or corrected, despite participants remembering the correction. The researchers tested whether explicit warnings about potential misleading…
Identification of influential social networkers
This paper explores the role of online social networking in modern life, focusing on how communities form to share information and promote products through viral marketing. It introduces a new metric called…
Ironic effects of drawing attention to story errors.
This study examines the phenomenon of suggestibility, where readers incorporate errors from fictional stories into their responses to general knowledge questions, even when these errors contradict well-known facts. The researchers aimed to…
