The inhibitory impact of collaboration on the continued influence effect of misinformation

The continued influence effect (CIE) of misinformation refers to the persistence of misinformation's impact on memory and inference even when individuals are aware of a retraction. This study examined whether collaborative processes affect the CIE and investigated the underlying mechanisms through three experiments. Experiment 1 explored the general impact of collaboration on the CIE. Experiment 2 further dissected collaboration into turn-taking and free collaboration conditions, assessing their effects on the CIE at various recall intervals. Building on these findings, Experiment 3 delved into the mechanisms driving the differential effects of turn-taking and free collaboration on misinformation correction. Results revealed that turn-taking collaboration consistently mitigates the CIE, while the effect of free collaboration on misinformation correction is moderated by recall time. This variation is attributed to differences in re-exposure, cross-cuing, and forgetting across collaboration types. The present study contributes empirical support to the Knowledge Revision Theory of the CIE.