My research focuses on issues related to persuasion and bias-correction in relation to recipients' reactions to misinformation. Initial research in my lab has addressed the role of sources (both of misinformation and of corrections) and has documented motivational influences on people continuing to endorse misinformation and treat it as true after it is labeled as false. Importantly, such motivational mechanisms seem to play similar roles across the spectrum of prior beliefs and worldviews that might create those motivations.

College of Arts and Sciences profile

Select Publications

Susmann, M. W., & Wegener, D. T. (2023). How attitudes impact the continued influence effect of misinformation: The mediating role of discomfort. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 49(5), 744-757. DOI.

Westbrook, V. L., Wegener, D. T., & Susmann, M. W. (2023). Mechanisms in continued influence: The impact of misinformation corrections on source perceptions. Memory and Cognition, 51, 1317-1330. DOI.