Abstract
Fact-checking and warnings of misinformation are increasingly salient and prevalent components of modern news media and political communications. While many warnings about political misinformation are valid and enable people to reject misleading information, the quality and validity of misinformation warnings can vary widely. Replicating and extending research from the fields of social cognition and forensic psychology, we find evidence that valid retrospective warnings of misleading news can help individuals discard erroneous information, although the corrections are weak. However, when informative news is wrongly labeled as inaccurate, these false warnings reduce the news’ credibility. Invalid misinformation warnings taint the truth, lead individuals to discard authentic information, and impede political memory. As only a few studies on the tainted truth effect exist, our research helps to illuminate the less explored dark side of misinformation warnings. Our findings suggest general warnings of misinformation should be avoided as indiscriminate use can reduce the credibility of valid news sources and lead individuals to discard useful information.
Highlights
Warnings of misinformation are an increasingly common feature of American political communication
Individuals who were exposed to misinformation but not warned about it incorrectly reported the misleading information as what they had seen in the original event video for 33% of the experimental subset questions
We find that invalid misinformation warnings can damage source credibility and cause people to reject accurate information that is associated with the tainted source
Summary
Warnings of misinformation are an increasingly common feature of American political communication. In the months prior to the 2016 general election, one in four Americans read a fact-checking article from a national fact-checking website Fact-checking organization growth accelerated in the early 2000s, and the number of fact-checking outlets continues to increase in the U.S and around the world (Graves 2016; Graves et al 2016; Spivak 2010; Stencel 2019). Due to the increased salience of political misinformation and rise of fact-checking organizations, people often encounter warnings regarding misinformation, but the quality and veracity of these warnings can vary considerably. We evaluate how invalid warnings of misinformation can lead people to distrust the information’s source, cause people to discard accurate information, and impede memory
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