Factors for Successful Correction of Science Misinformation Identified

A meta-analysis of 74 experiments involving 60,000 participants conducted by University of Pennsylvania social psychologists and communication scholars found that attempts to correct science-relevant misinformation were, on average, not successful. However, corrections worked better when the issue in the correction was emotionally more positive than the misinformation, the correction matched the ideology of the recipients, the issue was not politically polarized, and the correction provided abundant details as to why the earlier claims were false.