Repeated exposure alone makes false statements seem more credible to anyone

Evidence

Probably the most important reason for not ignoring unscientific or anti-scientific statements in social networks or online comments and for sometimes entering into a discussion after all is referred to in psychology as the illusion of truth effect: If you repeat various statements to subjects different numbers of times, they will tend to find the statements they have heard most often more credible than others . This effect is independent of the age of the subjects as well as of intelligence and thought styles . If scientifically untenable statements are regularly left uncontradicted, there is a danger that uninvolved readers will increasingly believe them to be true. — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 285

Categorization

• XREF: Directly grounds the reader’s standing concern that uncontested misinformation accumulates; pairs with Milgrom-style findings that information environments shape belief. — connects to: Repeating a statement increases belief in its truth regardless of accuracy — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 65; Repeated exposure makes people find sharing misinformation less unethical — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 73; Misinformation often wins because it is simpler and more repeated than truth — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 87 (+5 more)
• SEED: An essay angle: silence as complicity — why the illusion of truth effect obligates scientists to answer online falsehoods even when persuasion seems hopeless.
• DEFINE: Concise definition of the illusion of truth effect with its key empirical finding (robust to age, intelligence, thinking style).

Related

• Repeated exposure makes people find sharing misinformation less unethical (similarity 0.87)
• Repeating a statement increases belief in its truth regardless of accuracy (similarity 0.85)
• Repeated exposure makes false claims feel true in the gut (similarity 0.84)
• Misinformation often wins because it is simpler and more repeated than truth (similarity 0.84)
• Repeated truths eventually overcome even motivated reasoners’ resistance (similarity 0.79)
• Propagandists intuited the illusory truth effect long before psychologists verified it. (similarity 0.79)
• Some claims remain unbelievable no matter how often repeated (similarity 0.79)
• Refuting a lie aims at its audience, not the liar (similarity 0.78)