Research suggests that peoples learning may be influenced by individual differences in their epistemic beliefs, such asFaith in Intuition (FiN), Need for Evidence (NfE), and belief that Truth is Political(TiP). This study investigated the extentto which these epistemic beliefs influenced belief in scientific information about global warming and trust in sources.Participants read statements about global warming and rated how much they believed the information and trusted thesource. Each statement was presented with a conservative, liberal, or scientific source and framed in certain or tentativelanguage. We found that epistemic beliefs significantly interacted with source and language tentativeness. For example,those with low FiN believed certain language statements more than tentative language statements. Those with low NfEbelieved conservative sources more than scientific or liberal sources. These findings demonstrate how individuals epistemicbeliefs interact with source and language factors to influence belief and trust of scientific information.

Social media users are generally exposed to information that is predominantly consistent with their attitudes and beliefs (i.e., filter bubbles), which can increase polarization and decrease understanding of complex and controversial topics. One potential approach to mitigating the negative consequences of filter bubbles is intentional exposure to information that is inconsistent with attitudes. However, it is unclear how exposure to attitude-inconsistent information in social media contexts influences memory for controversial information. To fill this gap, this study examines the effects of presenting participants (n = 96) with Twitter content on a controversial topic (i.e., labor unions) that was either pro-union, anti-union, or neutral. Participants then read a media article including both pro-union and anti-union information. Participants who saw Twitter content that was inconsistent with their prior attitudes regarding labor unions recalled less of the article content compared to those who saw Twitter content that was consistent with their prior attitudes. The findings suggest that Twitter users’ memory for information related to controversial topics may not benefit from exposure to messages outside their filter bubble.