Look it up: Online search reduces the problematic effects of exposures to inaccuracies
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Look it up: Online search reduces the problematic effects of exposures to inaccuracies Amalia M. Donovan 1 & David N. Rapp 1,2
# The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2020
Abstract People often reproduce information they read, which is beneficial when that information is accurate. Unfortunately, people are also often exposed to inaccurate information, with subsequent reproductions allowing for problematic decisions and behaviors. One empirically validated consequence of exposures to inaccuracies is that after reading falsehoods, participants are more likely to make errors answering related questions than if they previously read accurate statements, particularly for unfamiliar information. Interventions designed to attenuate these reproductions are often ineffective, at least as studied in tasks that restrict participants to generating answers based on text content and relevant prior knowledge. In the real world, however, people have access to outside resources to evaluate information. In three experiments, we tested whether affording the option to search for relevant online information following exposure to inaccurate statements would reduce reproductions of those inaccuracies on a post-reading task. Participants given the opportunity to search for information were less likely to reproduce inaccurate information and more likely to produce correct responses, in comparison to the performance of participants who were not allowed to search. We also tested whether warnings about potentially inaccurate information would encourage searches and inform responses. While warnings increased searching, additional reductions in inaccurate reproductions were not observed. Given the contingencies of many lab tasks, reproductions of inaccurate information might be overestimated. Resources available in the real world can offer useful supports for reducing the influence of and uncertainty associated with inaccurate exposures, consistent with contemporary accounts of memory and comprehension. Keywords Inaccurate information . Online search . Reading comprehension . Memory . Text processing
Introduction Reading accurate information can help us develop useful understandings of the world. Unfortunately, not everything we read is accurate, and taking up such information can have problematic consequences, instantiating uncertainty and affording undue consideration of false ideas. Consider that people refer to previously presented inaccuracies when answering questions about events even after those ideas have been discredited (Ecker, Lewandowsky, & Tang, 2010; Johnson & Seifert, 1994; Rich & Zaragoza, 2016). Exposures to inaccurate information also increases people’s errors when answering related
* David N. Rapp [email protected] 1
School of Education and Social Policy, 2120 Campus Drive, Northwestern University, 2120 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
2
Department of Psychology, 2029 Sheridan Drive, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA
questions, whether that information is presented in decontextualized declarative statem
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