Individual Differences in Misremembering Fake News on Social Media

Abstract

Social media is omnipresent in many lives, and its popularity has made it a prime delivery method for misinformation. This problem is widely recognized, even by social media companies. The debate rages on as to what the right approach should be to combat misinformation; some suggest removal of misinformation; others suggest labeling misinformation. Therefore, it is important to understand how labeling misinformation may interact with individual differences to affect recall of what is and is not misinformation. In addition to factors like confirmation bias, in-group versus out-group assignment, and other cognitive effects, there may be individual differences that could affect the likeliness of misremembering the veracity of information. In this study, the effects of differences in working memory and personality on recall of misinformation labels are tested, with the aim being to determine what, if any, effect these factors have on the utility of misinformation labels. Results indicate no predictive capability for knowing individuals’ working memory, extroversion, and conscientiousness on their recall of whether information was labeled as false.