Promoting eyewitness testimony quality: Warning vs. reinforced self-affi rmation as methods of reduction of the misinformation effect

• Authors: Malwina Szpitalak , Romuald Polczyk
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In a typical experiment on the misinformation effect, subjects fi rst watch some event, afterwards read a description of it which in the experimental group includes some incorrect details, and answer questions relating to the original event. Typically, subjects in the misled experimental group report more false details than those from the control group. The main purpose of the presented study was to compare two methods of reducing the misinformation effect, namely – warning against misinformation and reinforced self-affi rmation. The reinforced self-affi rmation consists of two elements: the participants recall their greatest achievements of life, and are being given a positive feedback about their performance in a memory task. The obtained results showed that the reinforced self-affi rmation was more effective than warning, although the latter also caused a significant reduction of the vulnerability to misinformation.

Keywords

EN

misinformation effect; warning; reinforced self-affirmation; eyewitness testimony; reducing misinformation effect

• Publisher: Committee for Psychological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Polish Psychological Bulletin
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 85-91

Contributors

author

Malwina Szpitalak

• Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University Al. Mickiewicza 3 31-120, Kraków

author

Romuald Polczyk

• Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University Al. Mickiewicza 3 31-120, Kraków