The main goal of this project is to experimentally investigate the mechanisms shaping the acceptance and correction of misinformation in social contexts by systematically addressing the previously identified gaps. Specifically, the project examines:

1. The acceptance of misinformation in social contexts, namely whether social interaction processes offering discussion opportunities promote error-pruning and minimize misinformation acceptance.
2. The role of informative and normative social influence, namely whether (mis)information introduced by a source reporting higher (vs. lower) confidence or by an ingroup member (vs. outgroup) increases (mis)information acceptance and its correction.
3. The effectiveness of different types of contradictions to the false information provided, namely by testing an innovative strategy capitalizing on naturally occurring misattribution processes: by providing contradictions in a format that enhances misattribution, misinformation correction is likely achieved.
4. Finally, we will extend this research to ecological contexts where fake news is often introduced and disseminated to examine potential applications and boundary conditions. We expect that discussion opportunities, confidence, and group membership of the sources introducing and correcting misinformation as well as tailored contradictions will reduce misinformation acceptance and enhance its correction in social media platforms.

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