Accounting for Judgment Formation Strategy in How People Respond to Corrective Information

• In Event: Information Processing and Motivated Reasoning

Abstract

Persistent belief in misinformation, even upon exposure to corrections, has been one of the more striking findings in the literature on misperceptions. This phenomenon is often attributed to directional motivated reasoning, suggesting that people resist corrections when they go against their prior attitudes. However, we argue that the role of prior attitudes in shaping responses to corrective messages varies depending how people form judgments about new information. Using an experimental design, this study observes whether responsiveness to corrective messages is conditional on whether information is processed in either an on-line (OL) or memory-based (MB) fashion. Findings suggest that the effect of prior attitudes in influencing responsiveness to corrections is isolated to MB processors, while OL processors showed no differences in their responses to corrective information regardless of their prior views.

Authors

• Dustin Carnahan, Michigan State U

• R. Kelly Garrett, Ohio State U