Attitudes towards feminism predict susceptibility to feminism‐related fake news

Abstract

Summary False memories may be especially likely when one is exposed to misinformation that is consistent with one's beliefs. Here, we assessed whether feminist attitudes predict susceptibility to feminism‐related fake news. In Experiment 1 (n = 1537), the more negative participants' attitudes towards feminism, the more likely they were to report a false memory for a fabricated event that negatively reflected on the feminist movement, and vice‐versa. This effect was only evident for those who interpreted the event as expected (e.g., those who rated the event as bad for feminism). When the purpose of the study was revealed, feminist attitudes also predicted ability to identify the stories as fake. We replicated these findings in Experiment 2 (n = 786), using fake stories that were less ambiguous. This study suggests that individuals are more susceptible to false memories for fake news stories that are ideologically congruent, even after a warning.

False memories for true and false vaccination information form in line with pre‐existing vaccine opinions

“…The findings can also be explained via fuzzy trace theory, if the gist of the fake news story overlaps with other related memories. These results are in line with previous studies which have linked attitudinal congruence with the formation of false memories for fake news about an abortion referendum (Murphy et al, 2019 ), the feminist movement (Murphy et al, 2021 ) and US politics (Frenda et al, 2013 ). Experiment 1 dealt exclusively with fabricated stories about events that never took place.…”

“…The current research adds to literature suggesting that congruence of a news item with pre-existing beliefs may be a significant contributing factor to false memory formation (Frenda et al, 2013;Murphy et al, 2019Murphy et al, , 2021. This paper builds on recent research which has examined the influence of congruency on simple item-pairing paradigms (e.g.…”

“…The current study used a relatively simple paradigm, following similar false‐memory studies (e.g. Frenda et al, 2013 ; Greene & Murphy, 2020 ; Murphy et al, 2021 ). The richness of the reported memories for both the accurate and fabricated news items was not assessed, and we cannot comment on whether memories for true and false events were qualitatively distinct.…”

“…Recent research indicates that susceptibility to false memories is influenced by a range of individual differences including personality traits, intelligence, and age (Greene et al, 2021 ; Lee, 2004 ; Roediger III & Geraci, 2007 ; Zhu, Chen, Loftus, Lin, He, Chen, et al, 2010 ; Zhu, Chen, Loftus, Lin, He, Chen, & Dong, 2010 ). False memories are considerably more likely to form when the news item or event aligns with participants' ideological or political viewpoints (Frenda et al, 2013 ; Murphy et al, 2019 , 2021 ). Levels of interest in or expertise for a topic have also been linked with higher reporting of false memories for that topic (Baird, 2003 ; Castel et al, 2007 ; Mehta et al, 2011 ; O'Connell & Greene, 2017 ).…”

Weak correlations among 13 episodic memory tasks related to the same public event

“…Research has demonstrated that individuals can form false memories when exposed to fabricated news stories (Frenda et al, 2013;, often reporting that they remembered the event happening and had seen the story in the media (Murphy et al, 2019). False memories are more likely in this paradigm when the information presented is in line with current attitudes (Calvillo et al, 2023;Frenda et al, 2013;Greene, de Saint Laurent, et al, 2022;Greene, Levine, et al, 2022;Murphy et al, 2021), consistent with the source monitoring framework (Johnson et al, 1993).…”