ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors aim to evaluate the literature on the debunking of misinformation in light of the following questions. Just as the provision of a 'reason,' even a placebic one, was effective in eliciting compliance, misinformation that enables people to understand why something happens is better integrated into their knowledge structure, hence more persistent. Proactive interference naturally transpires because of the way the people memory works, so it presents inherent challenges with any correction attempts, especially when the previous misinformation plays a central role in explaining the focal event. If the detection of incompatibility is the key to explaining why repetition of misinformation enhances correction efficacy, for example, one may systematically vary the salience of incompatibility between misinformation and corrective information and examine how it moderates the efficacy of correction. Potential methodological confounds, including syntactic and semantic features of misinformation, should be assessed thoroughly before any theoretical explaining is attempted.
