Interventions to Limit the Continued Influence Effect Across Contexts

Misinformation, particularly on social media, is perpetrated and absorbed by the general public. In wake of recent events, anxieties about widespread misinformation have become increasingly salient to researchers across a variety of fields. The continued influence effect occurs when people rely on information even after it has been established as false, and can exacerbate the persistence of misinformation. While interventions have been developed to combat misinformation, they are generally limited in scope or have not been tested to reduce the continued influence effect. My research aimed to examine the efficacy of two previously successful interventions, specific warnings and accuracy prompts, across contexts to evaluate their generalizability. Participants were given one of two interventions (or not, in the control conditions) and then immediately presented with information in one context, mirroring past research. After a distractor task, participants were presented with information in a second, ostensibly unrelated context. Reliance on the misinformation was evaluated through inferential and recall questions asked after each context. I initially expected that both interventions would reduce reliance on misinformation in general and across contexts, and I expected intervention efficacy to weaken over time. However, participants in the intervention conditions were similarly reliant on misinformation to their control counterparts. Despite limitations, the present research serves to illustrate the complexity of the misinformation phenomenon and illustrates directions for future research.<p></p>