A brief examination below on the illusory truth effect. Excerpt from research paper:
Original article
The effects of repetition frequency on the illusory truth effect
Cognitive Research
The illusory truth effect, which is sometimes also referred to as the repetition truth effect, has now been replicated many times, and a meta-analysis showed that when comparing verbatim repetitions to novel information it is a medium effect size (d = 0.53). The illusory truth effect has also been demonstrated using a variety of different stimuli, including trivia statements, fake news headlines, product claims, opinion statements, rumors, and misinformation about observed events. The effect occurs regardless of whether the time between the repetitions is minutes, weeks, or even months apart. Furthermore, the effect does not depend upon the source of the statements and occurs even when participants are explicitly told that the source of the statements is unreliable or when the initial statement had a qualifier that cast doubt on the statement’s validity. Further evidence of the robustness of this effect comes from studies showing that the illusory truth effect even occurs when the repeated statements are highly implausible (e.g., The earth is a perfect square) or when the repeated statements directly contradict participants’ prior knowledge (e.g., The fastest land animal is the leopard.)
Repetition can affect beliefs about truth. People tend to perceive claims as truer if they have been exposed to them before. This is known as the illusory truth effect, and it helps explain why advertisements and propaganda work, and also why people believe fake news to be true. Although a large number of studies have shown that the illusory truth effect occurs, very little research has used more than three repetitions. However, in the real world, claims are often encountered at much higher repetition rates. The goal of the current research was to examine how a larger number of repeated exposures affects our judgments of truth. In both experiments, we found that the more often that participants had previously encountered the trivia statement, the more truthful they rated it to be, but the largest increases in perceived truth occurred when people encountered a statement for the second time. Together these experiments show the powerful effect of simple repetition in affecting our judgments of truth.
142nd Posting, January 12, 2024.