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Chloe Wittenberg & Adam J. Berinsky

continued inﬂuence effect

The ubiquity of worldview backﬁre effects remains an open question. However,
even if these effects are overblown, valid concerns about the unintended
consequences of corrections remain. In particular, the format in which
corrections are delivered may bolster beliefs in misinformation, even in the
absence of worldview backﬁre effects. A near-universal ﬁnding in the
misinformation literature is that, even after its correction, misinformation
continues to inﬂuence people’s attitudes and beliefs (for a review, see Walter
and Tukachinsky 2019). This is known as the continued inﬂuence effect (Wilkes
and Leatherbarrow 1988; Johnson and Seifert 1994). Importantly, people may
correctly recall a retraction yet still use outdated misinformation when
reasoning about an event. From this perspective, corrections can partially
reduce misperceptions but cannot fully eliminate reliance on misinformation
in later judgments.
Social_Media_and_Democracy