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Debunking decreases mistaken causal inferences: A direct replication of Irving et al. (2022)

by Dhruv Aggarwal, Keyi Zhang, and James Edward Bartlett

Posted: July 23, 2026
Server: PsyArXiv
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/am6rg_v1

We conducted a direct replication of Irving et al. (2022) examining whether a debunking statement reduces mistaken causal inferences from correlational evidence. We randomly allocated participants to read a news article containing either a correction statement (n = 65) or a no-correction control (n = 64). Participants in the correction group made fewer causal inferences (delta = 0.65, 95% HDI [0.30, 1.00]) and more correlational inferences (delta = 0.72, 95% HDI [0.36, 1.07]) compared to the no correction group. In exploratory analyses, we also supported the robustness of their findings to alternative modelling choices. Our findings represent a successful direct replication of Irving et al.

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