SSRScientific and Social Research2661-43322981-9946Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty. Ltd.10.26689/ssr.v8i4.14854ArticleWhy Debunking Fades: Misinformation Correction as a Temporary Achievement in Competitive Social Media Environmentshttps://artdesignp.com/journal/SSR/8/4/10.26689/ssr.v8i4.14854EQinyu,HuangXiaoying2026842026-05-25Research on misinformation correction has focused mainly on whether debunking reduces false beliefs immediately after exposure, while paying less attention to why such effects weaken over time. This paper argues that correction effectiveness is best understood as a temporary persuasive achievement whose durability depends on continued success in post-exposure competition. Corrective influence must remain competitive across three linked domains: attention allocation, interpretive authority, and memory retrievability. Corrections fade when they lose attention, lose control over how they are understood, and become less retrievable than the misinformation they seek to displace. Debunking decay, in this sense, reflects the difficulty of sustaining corrective influence over time.

Chae JH, Groeling T, Song H, 2026, Time is the Fire in which Message Effects Burn: Decay and Sustenance of Correction Effects over Time. Journal of Communication, 76(1): 36–48. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqaf030

Nyhan B, 2021, Why the Backfire Effect Does Not Explain the Durability of Political Misperceptions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(15): e1912440117. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1912440117

Swire-Thompson B, Dobbs M, Thomas A, & et al., 2023, Memory Failure Predicts Belief Regression after the Correction of Misinformation. Cognition, 2023(230): 105276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105276

Gunasekara S, Sew C, Pareek S, et al., 2026, Timing Matters: Designing Effective Corrections for Short-form Video Misinformation. In Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ‘26). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3790560

Capewell G, Maertens R, Remshard M, et al., 2024, Misinformation Interventions Decay Rapidly without an Immediate Posttest. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 54(8): 441–454. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.13049