Misinformation can lead to socially detrimental behavior, which makes finding ways to combat its effects a matter of crucial public concern. A new paper by researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General explores an innovative approach to countering the impact of factually incorrect information called “bypassing,” and finds that it may have advantages over the standard approach of correcting inaccurate statements.
“The gold standard for tackling misinformation is a correction that factually contradicts the misinformation” by directly refuting the claim […]
in the study “Bypassing versus correcting misinformation: Efficacy and fundamental processes.” Corrections can work, but countering misinformation this way is an uphill battle: people don’t like to be contradicted, and a belief, once accepted, can be difficult to dislodge.
Bypassing works differently. Rather than directly addressing the misinformation, this strategy involves offering accurate information that has an implication opposite to that of the misinformation. For example, faced with the factually incorrect statement “genetically modified foods have health risks,” a bypassing approach might highlight the fact that genetically modified foods help the bee population. This counters the negative implication of the misinformation with positive implications, without taking the difficult path of confrontation
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“bypassing can generally be superior to correction, specifically in situations when people are focused on forming beliefs, but not attitudes, about the information they encounter.” This is because “when an attitude is formed, it serves as an anchor for a person’s judgment of future claims. When a belief is formed, there is more room for influence, and a bypassing message generally exerts more.”
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“bypassing can generally be superior to correction, specifically in situations when people are focused on forming beliefs, but not attitudes, about the information they encounter.” This is because “when an attitude is formed, it serves as an anchor for a person’s judgment of future claims. When a belief is formed, there is more room for influence, and a bypassing message generally exerts more.”
