Across four studies, we examined the effectiveness of misinformation
debunks created for the 2017 French election. We measured both memory for
the article and belief in the debunked rumor. In both US and French
samples, reading the debunk decreased belief in the false information, even
one week later. However, participants failed to remember many of the
details from the article. In addition, informative design features such as
an icon identifying the type of misinformation were ignored by readers.
Overall, we find that misinformation debunks can be effective, but readers
tend to forget the details and ignore peripheral information.