Frontiers in Psychology (Oct 2024)

The inhibitory impact of collaboration on the continued influence effect of misinformation

  • Gongxiang Chen,
  • Yuxuan Zhong,
  • Sujie Li

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1487146
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15

Abstract

Read online

The continued influence effect (CIE) of misinformation refers to the persistence of misinformation’s impact on memory and inference even when individuals are aware of a retraction. This study examined whether collaborative processes affect the CIE and investigated the underlying mechanisms through three experiments. Experiment 1 explored the general impact of collaboration on the CIE. Experiment 2 further dissected collaboration into turn-taking and free collaboration conditions, assessing their effects on the CIE at various recall intervals. Building on these findings, Experiment 3 delved into the mechanisms driving the differential effects of turn-taking and free collaboration on misinformation correction. Results revealed that turn-taking collaboration consistently mitigates the CIE, while the effect of free collaboration on misinformation correction is moderated by recall time. This variation is attributed to differences in re-exposure, cross-cuing, and forgetting across collaboration types. The present study contributes empirical support to the Knowledge Revision Theory of the CIE.

Keywords