The Potential for Narrative Correctives to Reduce Belief Echoes

• In Event: Top Four Papers in Health Communication

Abstract

Misleading and incorrect information about health behaviors is prevalent in the communication environment. Correcting misinformation is often difficult and recent research has suggested that even when individuals accept corrected information, misinformation can continue to influence attitudes (known as belief echoes, affective perseverance, or the continued influence effect). The present investigation proposes emotional narratives might be a useful vehicle to correct health-related misinformation. An experiment was conducted with 586 daily and intermittent smokers. Participants were randomly assigned to view one of three narratives containing misinformation about the health effects of natural tobacco product use which contained either no correction ending, a simple (no emotion) correction ending, or a negative emotion correction ending. Both the simple and negative emotion corrective ending produced significantly lower misinformed beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions related to natural tobacco use. The negative emotion corrective also produced significantly lower attitudes than the simple corrective. Implications for corrective message design are discussed.

Authors

• Angeline Sangalang, University of Dayton

• Yotam Ophir, The Annenberg School for Communication at the U of Pennsylvania

• Joseph N. Cappella, U of Pennsylvania