Brief Exposure to Misinformation Can Lead to Long‐Term False Memories
Open accessAbstract
Do false memories last? And do they last as long as true ones? This study investigated whether experimentally created false memories would persist for an extended period (one and a half years). A large number of subjects (N = 342) participated in a standard three‐stage misinformation procedure (saw the event slides, read the narrations with misinformation, and then took the memory tests). The initial tests showed that misinformation led to a significant amount of false memory. One and a half years later, the participants were tested again. About half of the misinformation false memory persisted, which was the same rate as for true memory. These results strongly suggest that brief exposure to misinformation can lead to long‐term false memory and that the strength of memory trace was similar for true and false memories. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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Brief exposure to misinformation can embed itself into long-term memory.
“studies have shown that brief exposure to misinformation can embed itself into long-term memory 45 .”
From Measuring the impact of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on vaccination intent in the UK and USA (2021) · cites this paper as [45]
Even after a brief exposure, misinformation can result in long-term attitudinal and behavioural shifts that pro-vaccination messaging may find hard to overcome.
“even after a brief exposure, misinformation can result in long-term attitudinal and behavioural shifts 45,57 that pro-vaccination messaging may find hard to overcome 57 .”
From Measuring the impact of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on vaccination intent in the UK and USA (2021) · cites this paper as [45]
The use of inaccurate information may not emerge immediately after its presentation but may occur after a delay.
“An added complication is that the use of inaccurate information does not necessarily emerge immediately after its presentation but may occur after a delay between the initial presentation and later test points [18, 19].”
From Misinformation lingers in memory: Failure of three pro-vaccination strategies (2017) · cites this paper as [19]
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- Authors
- Zhu, B., Chen, C., Loftus, E. F., He, Q., Chen, C., Lei, X., Lin, C., & Dong, Q.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- University of Southern California (US)
- Beijing Normal University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Loftus, Elizabeth F.
- Dong, Qi
- Venue
- Applied Cognitive Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-12-15
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 301-307
- ISSN
- 0888-4080 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0720
- OpenAlex
- W1738996409
- Cited by
- 55
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 4 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 4 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- papers.ssrn.com
- Locations
- Applied Cognitive Psychology (publishedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Higher Education Discipline Innovation Project
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Deception detection and forensic psychology
- Keywords
- false memory, misinformation, long-term memory, memory trace strength, eyewitness memory
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