Individual differences in false memory from misinformation: Personality characteristics and their interactions with cognitive abilities

This research investigated the associations among personality characteristics, cognitive abilities, and false memory induced by misinformation. Chinese college students (N = 436) participated in a misinformation study and received a battery of cognitive tasks and personality measures. Results showed that false memory was positively related to persistence, self-directedness, and active coping, but negatively related to depression, fear of negative evaluation, novelty seeking, negative coping, and cognitive abilities. Importantly, significant interaction effects were found between personality factors and cognitive abilities. Individuals with particular combinations of personality characteristics and cognitive abilities (i.e., low fear of negative evaluation, low harm avoidance, high cooperativeness, high reward dependence, and high self-directedness in combination with relatively low cognitive abilities) were more vulnerable to the misinformation effect. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.