Problems of Forensic Sciences 2017 Vol. 112 (CXII) 139-153
THE TENDENCY TO CONSPIRACY THINKING AND MISINFORMATION
Adam SIWIAK, Malwina SZPITALAK
Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
Streszczenie
Misinformation can cause people to falsely believe that they saw nonexistent details and lead people to have false memories. In the real world, when witnesses talk with one another, are interrogated with leading questions or suggestive techniques, when they see the media report about an event, misinformation can cause contamination of memory (Loftus, 2005). Some people are more susceptible to the negative impact of misinformation than others. The practical implications of the relationship between level of conspiracy thinking and the misinformation effect might be significant. This study is concerned with an examination of the relationship between conspiracist ideation and the misinformation effect. The experimental study was conducted using a 2 × 2 factorial design (misinformation: absent/present × conspiracist ideation: low level/high level) on 120 subjects (N = 120). Age ranged from 15 to 52 years. The results of this experiment showed the misinformation effect and correlation between high level of conspiracist ideation and the magnitude of the misinformation effect.
Słowa kluczowe
Misinformation effect; False belief; Eyewitness testimony; Conspiracy beliefs; Conspiracist ideation.