Listening to misinformation while driving: Cognitive load and the effectiveness of (repeated) corrections.

Sanderson, Jasmyne A.; Bowden, Vanessa; Swire-Thompson, Briony; Lewandowsky, Stephan; Ecker, Ullrich K. H. · 2022 · openalex_scout

DOI: 10.1037/mac0000057

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

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Summary

This study investigates the "continued-influence effect" (CIE), where misinformation persists in reasoning even after correction, specifically examining whether cognitive load and the repetition of corrections mitigate or exacerbate this phenomenon. The research addresses a theoretical debate regarding "familiarity-backfire effects," which posit that repeating misinformation within a correction increases its familiarity and thus its influence, particularly when cognitive resources are limited. The authors hypothesized that while cognitive load might impair the integration of corrections, repeated corrections would remain effective, thereby providing evidence against the existence of familiarity-backfire effects. To test these hypotheses, 259 undergraduate participants engaged in a driving simulator study designed to enhance ecological validity. The experiment utilized a 2 × 3 within-subjects design manipulating cognitive load (no-load vs. load) and retraction frequency (no-retraction, one-retraction, three-retractions). Participants listened to auditory news reports containing fictitious events and misinformation while driving. Cognitive load was induced via a secondary single-digit addition task administered on a tablet during the encoding of corrections. Misinformation familiarity was manipulated by repeating the correction statement once or three times. Participants’ reliance on misinformation was measured using inference questions that assessed their reasoning about the event causes, rather than simple recall. The results demonstrated that cognitive load significantly reduced the effectiveness of corrections. Under no-load conditions, a single correction effectively reduced misinformation reliance, and three corrections were even more effective. However, under cognitive load, a single correction was entirely ineffective, failing to reduce inference scores compared to the no-retraction baseline. Crucially, three retractions remained effective even under load, reducing misinformation reliance to levels comparable to single corrections without load. The study found no evidence of familiarity-backfire effects; repeating the misinformation within corrections did not increase belief in the falsehood, even when participants were distracted. Instead, repetition compensated for the cognitive impairment caused by the load task. These findings challenge the theoretical assumption that familiarity-driven backfire effects occur under cognitive load. The study concludes that practitioners can debunk misinformation by repeating the false claim within corrections without fear of inducing ironic backfire effects, even in distracted environments. The results suggest that while cognitive load hinders the processing of single corrections, repeated corrections facilitate sufficient encoding and integration to overcome this deficit. This has significant implications for real-world debunking strategies, indicating that redundancy in corrections is a robust method for ensuring belief updating in high-load contexts, such as multitasking scenarios common in modern media consumption.

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• mental demand