Fluid intelligence but not need for cognition is associated with attitude change in response to the correction of misinformation

Abstract

Abstract Misinformation can profoundly impact an individual’s attitudes—sometimes even after the misinformation has been corrected. In two preregistered experiments (N 1 = 355, N 2 = 725), we investigated whether individual differences in the ability and motivation to process information thoroughly influence the impact of misinformation in a news media context. More specifically, we tested whether fluid intelligence and need for cognition predicted the degree to which individuals who were exposed to misinformation changed their attitudes after receiving a correction message. We found consistent evidence that higher fluid intelligence is associated with a more pronounced correction effect, while need for cognition did not have a significant effect. This suggests that integrating a correction message with a previously encountered piece of misinformation can be challenging and that correction messages consequently need to be communicated in a way that is accessible to a broad audience.

Keywords

• Misinformation
• Fluid intelligence
• Propositional reasoning
• Need for cognition
• Continued influence effect