Repeating a statement increases belief in its truth regardless of accuracy

Evidence

The students were asked to evaluate the sixty statements three times, at two-week intervals. Crucially, only twenty of the statements were repeated each time; the other forty were new. The researchers then compared the ‘truth-ratings’ of the repeated versus non-repeated statements. What they found was astonishing. Regardless of whether the statement was true or false, belief in the truth of the claim went up as a function of repetition. In other words, the more often you hear a statement, the more ‘true’ it sounds. This became known as the illusory truth effect. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 65

In 1977, psychologists Lynn Hasher and David Goldstein asked a group of college students how certain they were that sixty general-knowledge trivia-like statements were either true or false. (An example would be a statement such as: ‘The thigh bone is the longest bone in the human body’, or ‘Lithium is the lightest of all metals.’) The students were asked to evaluate the sixty statements three times, at two-week intervals. Crucially, only twenty of the statements were repeated each time; the other forty were new. The researchers then compared the ‘truth-ratings’ of the repeated versus non-repeated statements. What they found was astonishing. Regardless of whether the statement was true or false, belief in the truth of the claim went up as a function of repetition. In other words, the more often you hear a statement, the more ‘true’ it sounds. This became known as the illusory truth effect. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 65

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to propagation-mode thinking in Communication as Culture — repetition as truth-signal relates to how media ritual shapes belief. — connects to: Correct prior knowledge does not shield people from the illusory truth effect — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 68; Some claims remain unbelievable no matter how often repeated — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 71; Misinformation often wins because it is simpler and more repeated than truth — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 87 (+13 more)
• DEFINE: Introduces the term ‘illusory truth effect’ with its original experimental finding.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 65

Broader Connections

• Repeated exposure alone makes false statements seem more credible to anyone #corroborates (0.95) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 285
• Repeating a false claim to debunk it increases its plausibility #corroborates (0.90) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 164
• Repeated hearing of a sentence inflates its perceived intelligibility #exemplifies (0.85)
• Repeated false accusation can generate belief through sheer illocutionary force #corroborates (0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1466
• Repeated exposure makes a second sentence intrinsically more intelligible than the first #exemplifies (0.80)
• Repetition substitutes for evidence as validation in new conspiracism #corroborates (0.80) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 15
• Unchallenged assertions gain credibility with passive audiences #corroborates (0.75) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 263
• Repeated truths eventually overcome even motivated reasoners’ resistance #qualifies (0.70) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 322