Experimental study reveals minimal memory alteration from politicized TikTok videos in young adults, suggesting nuanced boundaries to social media misinformation effects.
The issue of misinformation online through social media sources has been a subject of concern in recent years. We sought to test whether memory of a crime could be altered using politicized messages in TikTok format. 147 young adults watched an analog video of a home burglary. Then they watched matched TikTok-format videos discussing the crime, either using conservative or progressive political talking points. The TikTok format video contained several key pieces of misinformation. Participants also reported on their own political position as well as neurotic personality traits. Results indicated that misinformation in a TikTok video had little impact on participants’ memory for the crime even when the political talking points aligned with their personal political views. Current results suggest some nuance in the impact of political misinformation.
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Ferguson et al. (2026) studied this question.
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