One proposed solution to the misinformation crisis involves flagging misleading content. But people often continue to rely on falsehoods, even after receiving explicit corrections. We tested whether this continued influence effect depends on when people receive fact-checks. In two experiments (total N = 2,683), participants read true and false headlines taken from social media. In the treatment conditions, “true” and “false” tags appeared before, during, or after participants read each headline. In a control condition, participants received no information about veracity. One week later, all participants rated the same headlines’ accuracy. Providing fact-checks after headlines improved subsequent truth discernment more than providing the same information during or before exposure. We recently replicated this finding in a follow-up study where participants (N = 1215) completed a more naturalistic task at exposure. Our results inform both the cognitive science of belief revision and social media platform design.
Tomeka Bolar
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