Fluid intelligence but not need for cognition is associated with attitude change in response to the correction of misinformation

Abstract

Misinformation can profoundly impact an individual's attitudes - sometimes even after the misinformation has been corrected. In two preregistered experiments (N1 = 355, N2 = 725), we investigated whether individual differences in the ability and motivation to process information thoroughly influence the impact of misinformation in a news media context. More specifically, we tested whether fluid intelligence and need for cognition predicted the degree to which individuals who were exposed to misinformation changed their attitudes after receiving a correction message. We found consistent evidence that higher fluid intelligence is associated with a more pronounced correction effect, while need for cognition did not have a significant effect. This suggests that integrating a correction message with a previously encountered piece of misinformation can be challenging and that correction messages consequently need to be communicated in a way that is accessible to a broad audience.