Fluid intelligence but not need for cognition is associated with attitude change in response to the correction of misinformation.

Fabian Hutmacher, Markus Appel, Benjamin Sch��tzlein, Christoph Mengelkamp
Author Information
  1. Fabian Hutmacher: Human-Computer-Media-Institute, Psychology of Communication and New Media, Julius-Maximilians-University W��rzburg, Oswald-K��lpe-Weg 82, 97074, W��rzburg, Germany. fabian.hutmacher@uni-wuerzburg.de. ORCID
  2. Markus Appel: Human-Computer-Media-Institute, Psychology of Communication and New Media, Julius-Maximilians-University W��rzburg, Oswald-K��lpe-Weg 82, 97074, W��rzburg, Germany. ORCID
  3. Benjamin Sch��tzlein: Human-Computer-Media-Institute, Psychology of Communication and New Media, Julius-Maximilians-University W��rzburg, Oswald-K��lpe-Weg 82, 97074, W��rzburg, Germany.
  4. Christoph Mengelkamp: Human-Computer-Media-Institute, Psychology of Communication and New Media, Julius-Maximilians-University W��rzburg, Oswald-K��lpe-Weg 82, 97074, W��rzburg, Germany. ORCID

Abstract

Misinformation can profoundly impact an individual's attitudes-sometimes even after the misinformation has been corrected. In two preregistered experiments (N���=���355, N���=���725), we investigated whether individual differences in the ability and motivation to process information thoroughly influence the impact of misinformation in a news media context. More specifically, we tested whether fluid intelligence and need for cognition predicted the degree to which individuals who were exposed to misinformation changed their attitudes after receiving a correction message. We found consistent evidence that higher fluid intelligence is associated with a more pronounced correction effect, while need for cognition did not have a significant effect. This suggests that integrating a correction message with a previously encountered piece of misinformation can be challenging and that correction messages consequently need to be communicated in a way that is accessible to a broad audience.

Keywords

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MeSH Term

Humans
Intelligence
Male
Female
Adult
Young Adult
Cognition
Attitude
Communication
Individuality
Adolescent
Motivation

Word Cloud

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