ArticleJournal of applied research in memory and cognition2025
Pictures are not always worth a thousand words: Non-probative pictures did not increase the effectiveness of misinformation corrections.
Article in Journal of applied research in memory and cognition, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- You sure about that? The effects of textual and image-based Skepticism on belief in dubious social-media claims.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Much research has focused on the language used for debunking false beliefs: communications should lead with facts, label misinformation as false, and reinforce true information. Pictures are used in debunking messages, but it remains unclear whether they matter, and what content they should depict. Six experiments explored these issues, focusing on correcting science misconceptions. There were no effects of non-probative pictures on correcting misinformation beyond the effects of corrective text alone. This was true regardless of whether the image depicted the misconception (Exps. 1, 3-6) or the correct referent (Exps. 2, 3, 5, 6), whether a symbol reinforcing truth or falseness (red X or green checkmark) accompanied the image (Exps. 1-6), whether belief was assessed immediately or after a delay (Exps. 4-6), and in an exploratory last experiment, whether belief in real-world health issues was targeted. Simple messages yielded robust correction, but non-probative pictorial aids did not increase their potency.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.