People keep discredited beliefs when corrections leave no replacement explanation

Evidence

The alternative, ‘model updating account’ (or ‘integration account’) assumes that – like good Bayesians – people have a mental model of how something works and update it as new information becomes available. But something goes wrong in linking the correction to the misinformation. When misinformation is corrected without being replaced by a credible alternative explanation, this leaves a gap in people’s mental model. For example, think back to the warehouse fire scenario. If the fire wasn’t started by paint cans, then what could have started it? In the absence of a clear alternative explanation, the theory goes that people prefer to stick with a coherent yet incorrect model over an incoherent but correct mental model. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 277

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Factual corrections rarely backfire even on ideologically charged issues — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 137; Across 6,000 subjects corrections reduce but never fully eliminate misinformation — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 254; People often resist or reverse belief updating rather than tracking evidence — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 104 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• People often resist or reverse belief updating rather than tracking evidence #corroborates (0.85) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 104
• Correcting false beliefs can strengthen them rather than reduce them #expands (0.85) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 350
• People resist updating beliefs even at the cost of accuracy #corroborates (0.82)
• Conspiracy believers abandon specific claims while retaining a core that something must be wrong #expands (0.80) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 214
• Corrections work best when paired with a credible alternative explanation #expands (0.80) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 280
• Factual correction of conspiracism usually fails or backfires #corroborates (0.80) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 119
• Even disconfirmation evidence often fails to break a person’s confirmation bias #corroborates (0.80) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 94
• Correcting misinformation may be ineffective because people continue using it #corroborates (0.78) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 249
• Knowing a false claim was retracted fails to lower Americans’ belief in it #corroborates (0.78) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 267
• People often distort evidence to fit preexisting worldviews rather than updating beliefs #complicates (0.75) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 108
• False beliefs often stem from bad sources rather than closed minds #responds-to (0.75) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 143
• Conspiracist validation replaces evidence with communal repetition and affirmation. #responds-to (0.72) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 303
• People threatened by their group’s moral failures deny, relabel, and relativize the facts #qualifies (0.70) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2084