Voluntary Forgetting of (Presumably) Untrustworthy News: The Case of List‐Method Directed Forgetting

ABSTRACT Research on list‐method directed forgetting (LMDF) shows that previously encountered material can be voluntarily forgotten. Here, we examined LMDF of news contents. Experiment 1 found that a first set of news headlines from a supposedly untrustworthy source could be voluntarily forgotten, which benefited memory for a second set of news headlines from a supposedly trustworthy source. Experiment 2 used fictitious news reports as study materials and also found intact voluntary forgetting for Set 1 as well as a benefit for Set 2. Moreover, Experiment 2 clarified that the results were not affected by whether the news source for Set 1 was characterized as trustworthy or untrustworthy. News contents can be voluntarily forgotten, but whether this curtails the spread of untrustworthy information may depend on an individual's goals and motivation. Future work is needed to better understand how voluntary forgetting operates in applied settings.