Repeating a false claim to debunk it increases its plausibility

Evidence

Even with misinformation and myths, frequent repetition can make the information seem more plausible to us. The clearly disproven claim that vaccination can cause autism is familiar to many people because of its frequent mention, and thus remains in the memory. The dilemma of those who want to counter false claims is that they make this false information more widely known simply by mentioning it, thereby increasing its impact. This is called the Familiarity Backfire Effect. — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 164

Poorly crafted fact-checks often repeat key aspects of the misinformation in an attempt to debunk them, which could inadvertently strengthen memory associations that people hold with the myth in question. For instance, the statement ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ may just strengthen the association people have between the words ‘vaccine’ and ‘autism’. In one experiment, our team exposed people to a post stating that over 90 per cent of medical scientists agree that approved vaccines are safe and that parents should vaccinate their children. We didn’t mention or repeat the false autism link at all. Importantly, we found that compared to the control group (who received no information), treatment group participants were significantly and substantially less likely to believe in the false autism-vaccination link. Specifically, endorsement was about 30 per cent lower in the treatment group. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 285

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the Familiarity Backfire Effect: mentioning false claims to counter them spreads them further.
• SEED: An essay on the ‘truth sandwich’ approach to corrections — why fact-checking that repeats the false claim can backfire, using the autism-vaccine experiment datum.
• XREF: Connects to the continued-influence effect and the broader inoculation/prebunking literature. — connects to: Disputing a method can serve to deny the phenomenon the method reveals. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2043; IRS debunking paradoxically reinforces redemption theory’s appeal to believers — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 607; Repeating a statement increases belief in its truth regardless of accuracy — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 65 (+14 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice: How to Communicate…, 164; Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 285