The Effects of Repeated Exposure to Misinformation and Corrections on Attitudes Toward Political Candidates
Open AccessHow does the quantity of misinformation corrected by in-text corrections affect one’s feeling toward a political candidate? This survey experiment randomly assigned participants to read one of five mock newspaper articles with varying levels of misinformation and correction of a fictional political candidate. The treatment groups were control, low misinformation no correction, low misinformation low correction, high misinformation no correction, and high misinformation high correction. Results indicated that participants could consume, retain, and apply factual corrections in a fictional primary election setting. Participants awarded lower feeling scores to a candidate that was a source of political misinformation and was corrected in the text. These results emphasize the need for prompt correction of misinformation and highlight that an in-text correction can affect one’s feeling toward a political candidate.
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