The Illusory Truth Effect

When a “fact” tastes good and is repeated enough, we tend to believe it, no matter how false it may be.

Suddenly the truth now seems like a conspiracy theory

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”

— Aldous Huxley

If I say that the moon is made of cheese, no one reading this is going to believe that, no matter how many times I repeat it. That statement is too ludicrous. But what about something a little more plausible?

What if I said that moon rock has the same density as cheddar cheese? And what if I wasn’t the only one saying it? What if you’d also seen a tweet touting this amazing factoid, perhaps also heard it from a friend at some point, and read it in a blog post?

Unless you’re a geologist, a lunar fanatic, or otherwise in possession of an unusually good radar for moon rock-related misinformation, there is a not insignificant chance you would end up believing a made-up fact like that, without thinking to verify it.

You might repeat it to others or share it online. This is how the illusory truth effect works: we all have a tendency to believe something is true after being exposed to it multiple times. The more times we’ve heard something, the truer it seems.

The effect is so powerful that repetition can persuade us to believe information we know is false in the first place. Ever thought a product was stupid but somehow you ended up buying it on a regular basis?

The illusory truth effect is the reason why advertising works and why propaganda is one of the most powerful tools for controlling how people think. It’s why the speech of politicians can be bizarre and multiple-choice tests can cause students problems later on.

It’s why fake news spreads and retractions of misinformation don’t work.

Bottom line is if it seems too good to be true...

Beautiful write up you can read the whole thing here.

Be aware. Don't fall for fake news. https://fs.blog/2020/02/illusory-truth-effect/

We can see many here online doing this. They will say one factoid. Partially correct in someway but leave enough out to then steer it to their version of events. One of the biggest culprits of this at least on twitter is True Indology. More like Fraud Indology. But I digress.