Reflection on the Illusory Truth Effect (10)

 

The Illusory Truth Effect is a cognitive effect where we begin to believe any repeated false statement is true. This effect has a tendency to happen even when subjects should know better. The repetition of the misinformation influences the human perception of validity. 

This effect happens regardless of if the person knew the information was false. This effect is impractical to plausibility and personal intellect. 

This effect is tied to the idea of Processing Fluency, which can be defined as the idea that things that are easier to process are naturally associated with the truth. Repeated statements are easier to process, thus being naturally associated with truthfulness. 

With the addition of social media in our day to day lives, the illusory truth effect is more and more common. Especially with high volumes of misinformation being on social media platforms, social media contributes the most to this cognitive effect. Additionally, it's even harder to escape this effect due to our constant contact with social media platforms. 

Social Media can even purposefully manipulate our belief system using this effect. Pertaining to biased media platforms, they will only put out information that aligns with their political beliefs. Hearing the same false claim from the same few biased media sites will create the illusory truth effect. 

Not only does social media influence this effect, but we do too. When we see this repeated information, we are more likely to share it with our peers. This can lead us into groupthink and reinforce false ideas. This spread of information is very dangerous and can lead to uninformed voting.

Unfortunately, this is a difficult effect to recognize and break from when we experience it. The best way to try and avoid it is to use "critical thinking" skills and evaluate all information, if it is constantly repeated, and if it comes from a trustworthy source.