Misinformation in Open and Closed Online Platforms: Impacts and Countermeasures

Abstract

Misinformation can negatively influence people’s reasoning, decision-making and behaviour even following the provision of a clear correction; this is known as the continued influence effect. Numerous cognitive and socio-cognitive factors underlie misinformation reliance and the continued influence effect. Cognitive factors include limitations in memory capacity as well as memory updating and knowledge revision capabilities; socio-cognitive factors include biassed reasoning and perceived source credibility. Although misinformation is not a new problem, social media and instant messaging platforms have dramatically changed the information transmission environment, with their unregulated and user-controlled nature increasing the ease with which misinformation can be created and propagated. Drawing insights from cognitive, social and political psychology, the current chapter provides a general overview of the cognitive and social factors underlying (1) misinformation belief, and (2) the continued influence effect of corrected misinformation. The discussion focuses on how the unique nature of online information acquisition, specifically characteristics of both open and closed online communication networks, not only creates an environment ideal for the spread of misinformation, but functions to inhibit accurate knowledge revision. The chapter concludes by providing specific recommendations for how to effectively mitigate the spread of misinformation within the online information ecosystem. The concepts and recommendations discussed in this chapter are broadly applicable regardless of social or cultural context.