Recent empirical studies refute the notion that corrective information is ineffective or backfires, consistently demonstrating that corrections successfully reduce misperceptions rather than reinforcing preexisting false beliefs.
The claim states that corrective information rarely changes people's preexisting beliefs, echoing traditional assumptions about the continued influence effect and backfire effects. However, contemporary large-scale empirical research and replication studies (e.g., Wood & Porter 2019, Porter et al. 2022, Swire-Thompson et al. 2020) demonstrate that backfire effects are rare or non-existent under normal conditions, and that corrective information generally succeeds in reducing false beliefs. Therefore, the claim is refuted by current literature.