How self-reference enhances susceptibility to misinformation: An event-related potentials study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Social Psychology

Background:

• Self-reference is known to influence memory and decision-making.
• Understanding how self-reference affects susceptibility to misinformation is crucial for combating its spread.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the mechanisms by which self-referential encoding enhances susceptibility to misinformation.
• To examine the role of memory reactivation and source monitoring in self-referential misinformation effects.

Main Methods:

• Participants encoded event scenarios from a self-referential (protagonist) or other-referential (bystander) perspective.
• Misinformation was introduced via narratives following memory encoding.
• Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded to analyze neural correlates of memory reactivation and misinformation processing.

Main Results:

• Self-referential encoding led to higher acceptance of misinformation.
• Self-reference enhanced late memory reactivation (late positive component) but not early reactivation (frontal N400).
• Misleading information elicited greater late posterior negativity (LPN) for self-referential memories, indicating increased source monitoring demands.

Conclusions:

• Self-reference increases misinformation susceptibility through enhanced late-stage memory reactivation, leading to memory instability.
• Integration of misinformation with self-representations triggers source monitoring, but not always successful rejection.
• Findings highlight the cognitive mechanisms underlying self-referential vulnerability to false memories.