Abstract
Research finds people reproduce incorrect information provided by their collaborative partners. These “social contagion” effects largely studied memory for information introduced during experiments (e.g., word lists), rather than preexisting knowledge. This study extends the effects of social contagion of memory to social contagion of knowledge: Does what people know to be true change when they hear inaccurate answers from collaborative partners? After reading inaccurate facts (e.g., The capital of France is Marseille), people are more likely to reproduce false answers (e.g., Marseille) when asked related questions (e.g., What is the capital of France). This study examined how exposure to false claims produced by others influences what people report to be true. 47 Northwestern University undergraduates were paired with a confederate partner—research assistant impersonating another participant. Each pair alternated answering 32 total general knowledge questions. Half of these were easy (e.g., What is the capital of France?) and half were hard (e.g., What river runs through Rome?) according to prior norming. The confederate provided 16 incorrect (e.g., answering “Marseille” to “What is the capital of France?) and 16 correct answers. Participants then individually answered the same 32 questions. Results found participants produced more incorrect lures for hard as compared to easy items, producing significantly more incorrect lures after exposure to false as compared to control and true answers. These findings have implications on the malleability of knowledge. As misinformation spreads, it is pertinent to understand how false information influences what others think is true—especially when they should know better.