Article Version of Record

Making up History: False Memories of Fake News Stories

Author(s) / Creator(s)

Polage, Danielle C.

Abstract / Description

Previous research has shown that information that is repeated is more likely to be rated as true than information that has not been heard before. The current experiment examines whether familiarity with false news stories would increase rates of truthfulness and plausibility for these events. Further, the experiment tested whether false stories that were familiar would result in the creation of a false memory of having heard the story outside of the experiment. Participants were exposed to false new stories, each portrayed by the investigator as true news stories. After a five week delay, participants who had read the false experimental stories rated them as more truthful and more plausible than participants who had not been exposed to the stories. In addition, there was evidence of the creation of false memories for the source of the news story. Participants who had previously read about the stories were more likely to believe that they had heard the false stories from a source outside the experiment. These results suggest that repeating false claims will not only increase their believability but may also result in source monitoring errors.

Keyword(s)

illusory truth source false memory familiarity

Persistent Identifier

Date of first publication

2012-05-31

Journal title

Europe's Journal of Psychology

Volume

8

Issue

2

Page numbers

245–250

Publisher

PsychOpen GOLD

Publication status

publishedVersion

Review status

peerReviewed

Is version of

Citation

Polage, D. C. (2012). Making up History: False Memories of Fake News Stories. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 8(2), 245–250. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v8i2.456
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Polage, Danielle C.
  • PsychArchives acquisition timestamp
    2018-11-21T10:00:33Z
  • Made available on
    2018-11-21T10:00:33Z
  • Date of first publication
    2012-05-31
  • Abstract / Description
    Previous research has shown that information that is repeated is more likely to be rated as true than information that has not been heard before. The current experiment examines whether familiarity with false news stories would increase rates of truthfulness and plausibility for these events. Further, the experiment tested whether false stories that were familiar would result in the creation of a false memory of having heard the story outside of the experiment. Participants were exposed to false new stories, each portrayed by the investigator as true news stories. After a five week delay, participants who had read the false experimental stories rated them as more truthful and more plausible than participants who had not been exposed to the stories. In addition, there was evidence of the creation of false memories for the source of the news story. Participants who had previously read about the stories were more likely to believe that they had heard the false stories from a source outside the experiment. These results suggest that repeating false claims will not only increase their believability but may also result in source monitoring errors.
    en_US
  • Publication status
    publishedVersion
  • Review status
    peerReviewed
  • Citation
    Polage, D. C. (2012). Making up History: False Memories of Fake News Stories. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 8(2), 245–250. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v8i2.456
  • ISSN
    1841-0413
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1131
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1323
  • Language of content
    eng
  • Publisher
    PsychOpen GOLD
  • Is version of
    https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v8i2.456
  • Keyword(s)
    illusory truth
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    source
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    false memory
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    familiarity
    en_US
  • Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)
    150
  • Title
    Making up History: False Memories of Fake News Stories
    en_US
  • DRO type
    article
  • Issue
    2
  • Journal title
    Europe's Journal of Psychology
  • Page numbers
    245–250
  • Volume
    8
  • Visible tag(s)
    Version of Record