Reading Medium and Epistemic Emotions in the Continued Influence Effect of Misinformation

Abstract

It is well known that misinformation’s effects on memory linger, referred to as the continued influence effect, even after reading corrections. However, it is uncertain how the reading medium and epistemic emotions (relevant to knowledge construction) relate to the continued influence effect. In this study, college students (N = 84) read about fictional news events, each with the first article stating misinformation and the second providing corrected updated information and then indicated their emotions experienced. This was a within-subjects experiment in that two events were read on paper and two on screen to compare effects of reading medium. There were no reliable differences in the continued misinformation effect by reading medium. However, the associations between epistemic emotions and misinformation ratings appeared to be more robust when reading from paper than screens. There were no reliable differences in epistemic emotions experienced by reading medium. The findings indicate that reading news online does not appear to relate to susceptibility of misinformation.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/nxt2c/?view_only=ad3d608e19ff4b5b81b87b546e343941

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Virginia Clinton-Lisell

Virginia Clinton-Lisell, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Educational Foundations and Research at the University of North Dakota. She holds a masters’ degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from New York University and a doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Clinton-Lisell’s research focuses on digital reading comprehension and open education.

Alexia M. Langowski

Alexia M. Langowski completed her undergraduate studies as a University of North Dakota’s Department of Psychology major. She is currently a paraprofessional working with emergent bilinguals in Grand Forks Public Schools.