The continued influence effect refers to the finding that people often continue to rely on misinformation in their reasoning even if the information has been retracted. The present study aimed to investigate the extent to which the effectiveness of a retraction is determined by its credibility. In particular, we aimed to scrutinize previous findings suggesting that perceived trustworthiness but not perceived expertise of the retraction source determines a retraction’s effectiveness, and that continued influence arises only if a retraction is not believed. In two experiments, we found that source trustworthiness but not source expertise indeed influences retraction effectiveness, with retractions from low-trustworthiness sources entirely ineffective. We also found that retraction belief is indeed a predictor of continued reliance on misinformation, but that substantial continued influence effects can still occur with retractions designed to be and rated as highly credible.

持续影响效应是指人们在推理中经常继续依赖错误信息的发现，即使信息已被撤回。本研究旨在调查撤稿的有效性在多大程度上取决于其可信度。特别是，我们旨在仔细审查先前的发现，这些发现表明，撤稿源的感知可信度而非感知的专业知识决定了撤稿的有效性，并且只有在不相信撤稿时才会产生持续的影响。在两个实验中，我们发现来源可信度而非来源专业知识确实会影响撤稿效果，而来自低可信度来源的撤稿则完全无效。我们还发现，撤回信念确实是继续依赖错误信息的预测因素，