Misinformation has been identified as a major contributor to a variety of contentious contemporary events ranging from elections and referenda to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only can belief in misinformation lead to poor judgements and decision making, it also exerts a lingering influence on people’s reasoning after it has been corrected—an effect known as the continued influence effect. In this Review, we describe the cognitive, social, and affective factors that lead people to form or endorse misinformed views, and the psychological barriers to knowledge revision after misinformation is corrected, including theories of continued influence. We discuss the effectiveness of both pre-emptive (‘prebunking’) and reactive (‘debunking’) interventions to reduce the impacts of misinformation, as well as implications for information consumers and practitioners in various areas including journalism, public health, policy-making, and education.