Illusory Truth Effect

 

The illusory truth effect is the persistent finding that simply repeating a statement can increase a person's belief that the statement is true.

The effect occurs in young children and adults (Fazio et al., 2020).

Only two repetitions are needed to create the illusion of truth although increases in the frequency of repetition indicate an increase in the perception of truth.

This illusory truth effect helps account for the sharing of fake news (See Vellani et al. 2023)

It seems, fake stories must be extreme for people to recognize them as false.

As a cognitive phenomenon, the illusory truth effect is primarily associated with C (Cognition) in the SCOPES model of functioning.

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Politicians and other leaders can take advantage of the illusory truth effect to shape public opinion.

Anyone may use the illusory truth effect when they repeat exaggerated stories or poorly supported opinions.

Businesses can use the illusory truth effect to sell their product by using repeated marketing phrases.

Psychology of Religion hypothesis: Clergy and religious leaders encourage congregants to repeat statements of faith. Religious songs (hymns, choruses) may also contain statements of faith that are considered inaccurate even by conservative scholars. The diversity of congregations (such as Christian denominations) hold different beliefs about what is a truthful belief that separates them from similar groups. This diversity of belief may be partly explained by the repetition of the statements that define their view of the truth.

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RESEARCH NOTES

Lisa Fazio and her colleagues (2020) studied the effect of repetitions in children (ages 5 and 10) and adults and found the illusory truth effect in all age groups.

Fazio, L. K., & Sherry, C. L. (2020). The Effect of Repetition on Truth Judgments Across Development. Psychological Science, 31(9), 1150–1160. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620939534 

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Hassan and Barber (2021) studied the truth effect in two experiments that tested more repetitions of statements than did previous researchers. In one experiment, the participants saw up to 9 repetitions of statements and in another experiment, they saw up to 27 repetitions. The illusion of truth effect was supported in both studies. More repetitions led to a greater perception of truth for repeated statements compared to new ones. A clarification of the effect was evident on analysis of the data. The largest increase in perceived truthfulness occurred on the second time. After that, the size of the effect decreased. 

Hassan, A., Barber, S.J. The effects of repetition frequency on the illusory truth effect. Cogn. Research 6, 38 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41235-021-00301-5

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Valentina Vellani and others (2023) found that people were more likely to share repeated misinformation on social media than they were to share misinformation that was only presented once. The sharing was related to perceived accuracy of a statement linked to the bias produced by repetition.

Vellani, V., Zheng, S., Ercelik, D., & Sharot, T. (2023). The illusory truth effect leads to the spread of misinformation. Cognition, 236, 105421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105421

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For a resource summarizing the illusory truth effect and other cognitive phenomena, see Daniel Schachter's book, The Seven Sins of Memory

  

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