The continued influence effect: Examining how age, retraction, and delay impact inferential reasoning

Abstract

SummaryResearch suggests exposure to misinformation continues to impact belief and reasoning, even if that misinformation has been corrected (referred to as the Continued Influence Effect, CIE). The proposed experiment explores two potentially important factors that may impact the effect: (a) learner age and (b) length of delay between retraction and final test. During initial learning, participants (both young and older adults) will read six scenarios in which a critical piece of misinformation is either retracted or not retracted. Following no delay, a short (10 min) delay, or a long (2 days) delay, participants will then answer inferential reasoning questions about the previously‐studied scenarios to evaluate how (if at all) the prior retraction impacts reliance on misinformation. Outcomes will better help us to understand the ways in which misinformation (even following retraction) impacts reasoning, an issue of exceeding importance as the proliferation of fake news shows no signs of slowing.