Persistence of false memories and emergence of collective false memory: collaborative recall of DRM word lists

Information and misinformation are proliferating on social media. A rapid rise in the use of these platforms makes it important to identify psychological mechanisms that underlie the production, propagation, and convergence of false memories in groups. Websites and social media platforms vary in the extent of restrictions placed on interactive communication (e.g., group chats, threaded or disabled comments, direct messaging), prompting questions about the impact of different interaction styles on false memory production. We tested this question in a laboratory analog of interaction styles and compared two well-known procedures of collaboration, free-for-all and turn-taking. To expose participants to information known to promote recall of both true and false information, we used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) word lists (Roediger & McDermott, 1995). Participants recalled these words using free-for-all collaboration, turn-taking collaboration, or individually. Next, all participants individually recalled the studied items. Turn-taking produced more false memories in group recall than did free-for-all collaboration, replicating past findings. Novel findings showed that former group members exhibited social contagion following both interaction styles, where they produced more false information in later individual recall and exhibited collective false memories. We discuss the implications for the emergence and convergence of true and false memories among users online.