On a related note, it is essential to come to some consensus regarding what,
exactly, we consider a “backﬁre effect.” In particular, worldview backﬁre
effects may be an artifact of the baseline against which they are measured.
Scholars generally deﬁne worldview backﬁre effects as cases where the
presentation of both misinformation and its correction is worse than
presenting misinformation uncorrected. Yet when considering the deleterious
effects of misinformation in society, a more expansive deﬁnition may be
appropriate. Worldview backﬁre
commonly measured
experimentally
to
misinformation to respondents who were exposed to both misinformation
and corrections. However, when examining information that has already
spread through society – beliefs about President Obama’s citizenship, for
example – a better baseline might be people’s beliefs if they had not been
reexposed to misinformation as part of an experiment.
If providing a
Social_Media_and_Democracy