Continued Influence Effect

The continued influence effect is the finding that people go on relying on information they have been told is false when reasoning about an event, making inferences consistent with discredited misinformation even after a clear and credible correction has been given and even when they can accurately recall that a correction occurred. Researchers including Stephan Lewandowsky have found the effect strongest when the original misinformation supplied a causal explanation for a newsworthy event, since removing that explanation leaves a gap in the persons understanding that the false account had filled; explicit warnings about misinformation reduce but do not eliminate its continued influence.