Denser associative memory networks yield stronger resistance to misinformation

Evidence

The idea is that an inoculation message can help strengthen links between concepts, increase the number of concepts, or change the structure of the network altogether. For example, if there is refutational content in a fact-based inoculation that people didn’t know before, a new node might be added. Where previously it may have been ‘virus’, perhaps there are now additional nodes such as ‘inactivated’ versus ‘live’ virus. Similarly, while previously there may have been a path from ‘virus’ to ‘vaccine’ there may now be an additional path from ‘inactivated virus’ to ‘vaccine’. If such a path already existed, the inoculation message would have strengthened the link by activating it. The higher the density of the memory network surrounding the inoculation, the more resistant it is going to be against a misinformation attack. We think that active inoculation does a better job of strengthening the links between concepts and maybe even the importance people assign to them, because of the extra cognitive effort involved in the process of active inoculation. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 973

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: A cognitive plot: a character whose memory networks are deliberately fragmented/isolated becomes uniquely vulnerable to a kind of persuasive attack.
• XREF: Resonates with prior chapter claims on illusory truth (chapter 2) and false-memory formation via association. — connects to: Human memory stores concepts as associative networks of linked nodes — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 972; Interlaced but decoupled attentions generate knowledge exceeding any member’s contribution — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 341; Misinformation hijacks cognitive machinery and resists correction like a virus — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 22

Broader Connections

• Interlaced but decoupled attentions generate knowledge exceeding any member’s contribution #expands (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 341