EOTO #2

 Illusory truth effect 

The illusory truth effect it when someone perceives a claim as truer if they gave been exposed to them before. It is one of the main reasons why advertisements and propaganda worm and why people fall victim to misinformation and fake news. This effect can also work when the person had previous knowledge of it being false. It is most evident on subject matter that people perceive themselves experts of. 

The premise of the illusory truth effect is repetition. Repetition affects what we perceive to be true. studies that have been conducted don't typically go over 3 repetitions, while as in the real world repetition happens at a much higher rate. This is why there are current research taken place to examine exposure to high repetition rates and their affect on judgement. 

Two parallel experiments have been conducted. The first had a group of people come in and were shown trivia statements. The repetition rate for them was 1,3,5,7, or 9. The other experimental group brought in a group of people and showed them trivia statement. There repetition rate was 1, 9, 18, or 27 times. A week later both groups were brought in and showed the same trivia statements again. Those who encountered more repetition were more likely to perceive the statements as true. 

There are many theories as to why this effect works as well as it does. The most commonly referenced reason is the Processing fluency account. The processing fluency account refers to the metacognitive experience of ease or difficulty that accompanies an account.  information that is repeated is processed more fluently and in turn is perceive as true. This occurs because they have discovered that fluency is predictive of fluency.

This is all supported by the study that concluded that illusions of truth can happen without repetition. For example people tend to trust and perceive information as true when it is presented in an easy to read format or easy to understand speech. Speech that is presented in a less perceptually fluent format are less likely to perceive as false. 

There are a number of concerns about the consequences of the usage of this effect. The danger of fake news, misinformation, and conspiracy theories and how fast these things spread can be detrimental. This is only heightened because they have seen that despite being clearly disproven belief in misinformation can persists. This is due to people being exposed to fake news repeatedly so they perceive this information as true. 

This is why it is hard to get people to believe something that is hard to think about.  Using complicated words and explaining complicated topics have a bad outcome in terms of believability. They also found there can be a maximum to repetition. This is why a lot of advertisement that use this theory use subtle variations in adds or "subliminal messages". This is done because familiarity can make people believe, agree, or like what they hear or see but to much repetition can cause contempt.