Date of Award
Spring 6-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department/Program
Forensic Psychology
Language
English
First Advisor or Mentor
Charles Stone
Second Reader
Kelly McWilliams
Third Advisor
Cynthia Calkins
Abstract
Social media allows individuals to share, receive and engage with information and content on an international scale, often with other likeminded individuals and relatively few restrictions (Carr & Hayes, 2015). However, with this access comes the likelihood of engaging with and disseminating misinformation (Allcott et al., 2019), a form of information that may seem true initially but is later revealed as false (Cook et al., 2015). Misinformation is often disseminated by those whose political ideology matches that of the misinformation (Kahan, 2017; Kahan, 2013). The current study aims to expand on the extant literature to examine how misinformation warnings impact memory recall for self-generated descriptions of photographed events. Two hundred sixteen college-age students were recruited to participate in the current online study via SONA, where they completed stereotype items for Trump supporters and Republicans, and created Tweets for images depicting MAGA gatherings. Participants received immediate feedback consisting of a warning (“Rated False” or “Disputed”) or no warning, and the option to follow a link to the source of the image. Results demonstrate no effect of misinformation warnings on memory recall for self-generated descriptions. The “Rated False” misinformation warning resulted in decreased warmth stereotype scores for Republicans only.
Recommended Citation
Prince, Madalyn P., "Examining the effectiveness of misinformation warnings to alter stereotypes for public figures and memories for public events" (2022). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/jj_etds/224