Social endorsement influences the continued belief in corrected misinformation.

Reliance on misinformation often persists in the face of corrections. However, the role of social factors on people’s reliance on corrected misinformation has received little attention. In two experiments, we investigated the extent to which social endorsement of misinformation and corrections influences belief updating. In both experiments misinformation and fact-checks were presented as social media posts, and social endorsement was manipulated via the number of “likes.” In Experiment 1, social endorsement of the initial misinformation had a significant influence on belief; participants believed misinformation with high social endorsement more than misinformation with low endorsement. This effect was observed pre-factcheck and post-fact-check. High social endorsement of the fact-checks was associated with reduced misinformation belief; however, evidence for the persistence of this effect was mixed. These findings were replicated in Experiment 2. Our findings indicate that social endorsement can moderate our beliefs in misinformation and the fact-checks designed to correct these beliefs.